Parahydrogen puts new spin on medical imaging

This is the goal of a Glaxo-SmithKline-supported research programme at York University, where engineers have developed a way for transferring the magnetic spin of parahydrogen.

Through a reversible interaction with a specially designed molecular scaffold, the team has transferred parahydrogen’s magnetism to a range of molecules.

If this were applied to MRI, it could potentially increase sensitivity by giving scanners the ability to detect more molecules in the body than before.

Simon Duckett, a chemistry professor at York University, said that properly harnessed parahydrogen could help image biological processes, helping doctors spot tumours or signs of neurodegenerative diseases earlier.

Such diagnosis technology is possible with positron emission tomography (PET), where a patient is injected with a radioactive ’tracer’ material that mimics a biologically active molecule in the body, such as glucose. PET systems visualise whether the glucose was being metabolised by a tumour by detecting pairs of gamma rays emitted indirectly by the tracer.