Traditional Posters: Miscellaneous

Xiping Liu¹, Zheng Yang², Jun Xie³, Qian Yin¹, Shi-Jiang Li<sup>1

1</sup>Biophysics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States; ²Beijing Institute of Basic Medical Science, China; ³GE Healthcare, United States

Levo-tetrahydropalmatine (l-THP), purified from the Chinese herb, Stephanie, recently has been demonstrated to be effective in attenuating heroin craving and relapse in heroin addicts; it also inhibits cocaine¡¯s rewarding effects on animal models. Despite this behavioral evidence, the treatment mechanisms of l-THP for drug addiction have yet to be elucidated. Here, we applied high-field pharmacological MRI (phMRI) on heroin-dependent rats with or without chronic l-THP treatment. We found l-THP significantly attenuates heroin-priming induced BOLD responses in heroin-dependent rats in multiple addiction relevant neural circuitries.

1066. Pharmacological Analysis in Experimental Lung Fibrosis Performed by MRI

Anna Louise Babin¹, Catherine Cannet¹, Christelle Gerard¹, Clive P. Page², Nicolau Beckmann<sup>1

1</sup>Global Imaging Group, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Basel, BS, Switzerland; ²Sackler Institute of Pulmonary Pharmacology, King's College, London, SE1 1UL, United Kingdom

Experimental studies of lung fibrosis in animals have usually examined the effects of treatments starting before or at the time of lung injury. However, treatment in humans only begins after disease has been established. Since timing of treatment initiation is critical in this chronic model, we used MRI to assess non-invasively the effects of steroids (budesonide and dexamethasone) in the lungs of bleomycin (BLM) treated rats. MRI relying on non-ionizing radiation opens new avenues in testing compounds in vivo as the responses at several time points during the course of treatment can be easily compared.

1067. Tumor-Targeted Imaging and Delivery of SiRNA

Zdravka Medarova¹, Mohanraja Kumar¹, Anna Moore<sup>1

1</sup>Molecular Imaging Lab, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States

Since their discovery in 1998, small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) have emerged as a powerful new tool for post-transcriptional gene silencing. Here, we describe the synthesis and testing of a tumor-targeted nanoparticle probe (MN-EPPT-siSurvivin) to specifically shuttle siRNA to tumor cells. The probe binds the tumor antigen uMUC-1, found on a range of adenocarcinomas, and useful as an imaging target. Human breast, pancreatic, and colorectal cancer cells took up high amounts of the probe. The uptake could be measured by MRI and resulted in significant knock-down of the target gene.

1068. A Novel Mitochondrial Peptide Causes Recovery of Skeletal Muscle After Burn Trauma as Assessed with P31 NMR and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance in Vivo

Valeria Righi^1,2, Caterina Constantinou, ^1,3, Dionyssios Mintzopoulos^1,2, Nadeem Khan⁴, Sriram P. Mupparaju⁴, Harold M. Swartz⁴, Hazel H. Szeto⁵, Ronald G. Tompkins⁶, Laurence G. Rahme³, A Aria Tzika<sup>1,2

1</sup>NMR Surgical Laboratory, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Shriners Burns Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; ²Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA, United States; ³Molecular Surgery Laboratory, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Shriners Burns Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; ⁴EPR Center for Viable Systems, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH, United States; ⁵Department of Pharmacology, Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, United States; ⁶Department of Surgery, Division of Burn, Massachusetts General Hospital and Shriners Burns Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States

Using P31 NMR and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) in vivo, we evaluated the effects of a novel (Szeto-Schiller) SS-31 peptide on ATP synthesis rate and redox status, respectively in a clinically relevant burn trauma model. Our results showed that SS-31 peptide induces ATP synthesis rate and causes recovery of the mitochondrial redox status at 6 hours after burn. Thus, EPR, can be used to complement NMR in investigating, and even validating novel mitochondrial agents for burn trauma and a variety of pathologies (i.e., stroke, heart failure, diabetes, degenerative disorders, trauma, cancer) associated with mitochondrial dysfunction, including normal aging.

1069. A Texture Analysis Approach to Quantify Ventilation Changes in Hyperpolarised ³He MRI of the Rat Lung in an Asthma Model