Development of cellular labile iron probes as a novel approach for imaging inflammation in chronic disease

Iron is essential to life and synonymous with haemoglobin and oxygen transport around the body.

We do however have additional sources and uses for iron outside red blood cells, this iron is stored in cells and known as the labile iron pool (LIP). This free iron is tightly regulated by cells as high iron concentrations cause tissue damage. Inflammation disrupts the LIP homeostasis within cells due to hepcidin, a by-product of inflammation.

It stops iron export from the cell, thus increasing the concentration of the LIP within the cell. By causing this increase in iron it can have toxic effects in the wider tissue.

However, while causing damage to tissues, inflammation can be utilised as a hallmark of chronic conditions within the body and a way to identify this inflammation could be through LIP imaging. My aim for this research is to identify probes to quantify cellular LIP with MRI. I will use luminescence and NMR studies to determine probes with the potential to be clinically applicable.

Those probes deemed successful will progress into in-vivo MRI studies in mice.

This then has the potential to allow for early diagnosis and potentially a better prognosis for patients with underlying inflammatory pathologies.