Probe Development: Fundamentals/Chemistry

Silvio Aime ¹

MRI suffers from an intrinsic insensitivity with respect to the competing imaging modalities that has to be overcome by designining suitable amplification procedures based on the development of reporting units endowed with an enhanced sensitivity and on the identification of efficient routes of accumulation of the imaging probes at the sites of intererest. Along the years, the progressive understanding of the relationships between structure/dynamics and the relaxation processes has been fundamental for the development of high sensitive MRI agents. Furthermore chemists have exploited the outstanding achievements in the field of supramolecular assemblies to deliver high payload of imaging agents at the targeting sites.