Numerous patient groups receive >1 medication and as such represent a potential point of improvement in today's healthcare setup, as the combined or cumulative effects are difficult to monitor in an individual patient. Here we show the ability to monitor the pharmacological effect of 2 classes of medications sequentially, namely, 2,4-dinitrophenol, a mitochondrial uncoupler, and dichloroacetate, a pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase inhibitor, both targeting the oxygen-dependent energy metabolism. We show that although the 2 drugs target 2 different metabolic pathways connected ultimately to oxygen metabolism, we could distinguish the 2 in vivo by using hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate magnetic resonance imaging. A statistically significantly different pyruvate dehydrogenase flux was observed by reversing the treatment order of 2,4-dinitrophenol and dichloroacetate. The significance of this study is the demonstration of the ability to monitor the metabolic cumulative effects of 2 distinct therapeutics on an in vivo organ level using hyperpolarized magnetic resonance imaging.
Keywords: 2,4-DNP; DCA; MRI; hyperpolarization; metabolism.