image: Three-dimensional magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging reveals a decrease in tumor levels of 2-hydroxyglurate -- a metabolite that may contribute to tumor initiation -- in a patient with IDH1-mutated glioma after a week of treatment with an investigational targeted drug. view more
Credit: Ovidiu Andronesi, M.D., Ph.D., Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital
Using a novel imaging method, a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) research team is investigating the mechanisms behind a potential targeted treatment for a subtype of the deadly brains tumors called gliomas. In their report published in Nature Communications, the researchers describe using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) imaging - which reflects metabolic rather than structural aspects of tissues - to determine whether treatment with an investigational IDH1 inhibitor reduced levels of a tumor-associated metabolite in patients with IDH1-mutated gliomas participating in a clinical trial.
"Gliomas are aggressive, primary brain tumors that lack effective treatments, and patients invariably succumb to the disease," says lead author Ovidiu Andronesi, MD, PhD, of the MGH-based Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, lead author of the paper. "There is a desperate need for progress in glioma treatment, and IDH mutations, which occur commonly in these tumors, offer a pathway for targeted therapy. With the new metabolic imaging method that we developed to probe treatment effects, we showed that a novel IDH1 inhibitor can quickly reduce levels of the oncometabolite 2HG in patients with this mutation. This type of methodology has the potential to accelerate clinical trials and translation of targeted therapies, such as mutant IDH inhibitors, and makes the concept of precision oncology feasible in glioma patients."
While patients with gliomas characterized by mutations in the isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) enzyme tend to live three to five times longer, with better response to chemo- and radiation therapy, than do patients whose tumors do not carry IDH mutations, the mutations themselves may initiate and drive the growth of the tumor. IDH mutant tumors produce elevated levels of 2-hydroxyglurate (2HG), which is believed to contribute to tumor initiation by interfering with gene expression control. While it is unclear whether reducing 2HG level would reverse the process in patients, it could be used as a biomarker for diagnosis and monitoring of IDH mutant tumors.
The MGH and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute are one of the sites for a Phase 1 clinical trial of the IDH1 inhibitor IDH305 for IDH1-mutated glioma treatment. Of eight patients who had enrolled in the trial at time of the current study, MR imaging data collected before and a week after treatment began was available for five. Three-dimensional MRS imaging of the data found that 2HG levels dropped around 70 percent after treatment initiation. Levels of additional metabolites connected with the mutant IDH1 pathway - including glutamine and glutamate - were altered in response to IDH305 treatment, indicating a potential metabolic reprogramming of the tumor.
"MR spectroscopy is quick, noninvasive and can be performed on any clinical MR scanner, making results available before any biopsy or surgical procedure have begun," says Andronesi, and assistant professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. "It also can be used to track the response to treatment, since repeat biopsies are not feasible for patients with brain tumors, by directly probing the activity of the mutant IDH1 enzyme. Of course, our small study needs to be replicated in a larger group with longer follow-up times, as well as determining the long-term benefit of IDH1 inhibitor treatment."
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The senior author of the Nature Communications paper is Tracy Batchelor, MD, Pappas Center for Neuro-Oncology in the MGH Cancer Center. Additional co-authors are Isabel C. Arrillaga-Romany, MD, K. Ina Ly, MBBS, Jorg Dietrich, MD, PhD, and Elizabeth Gerstner, MD, Pappas Center for Neuro-Oncology; Eva-Maria Ratai, PhD, and Bruce R. Rosen, MD, PhD, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging; Kara Reitz and Daniel Cahill, MD, PhD, MGH Neurosurgery; John Iafrate, MD, PhD, MGH Pathology; Wolfgang Bogner, PhD, Medical University of Vienna; Andrew Chi, MD, PhD, New York University Langone Medical Center; and Patrick Wen, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The study was funded by National Cancer Institute grants K22 CA178269, R01 CA211080, SPORE P50 CA165962, R01 CA129371 and K24 CA125440A; and National Institutes of Health grants S10 RR013026, S10 RR021110 and S10 RR023401.
Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with an annual research budget of more than $900 million and major research centers in HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, genomic medicine, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, photomedicine and transplantation biology. The MGH topped the 2015 Nature Index list of health care organizations publishing in leading scientific journals and earned the prestigious 2015 Foster G. McGaw Prize for Excellence in Community Service. In August 2017 the MGH was once again named to the Honor Roll in the U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."
Journal
Nature Communications