Wendy Oakden1, Evelyn Ning Man Cheung2,
R Scott Prosser, 2,3, Greg Jan Stanisz1,4
1Department of Medical Biophysics,
University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; 2Department of
Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; 3Department
of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; 4Imaging
Research, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
We
present a new class gadolinium-based contrast agents for MR imaging. The
contrast agent consists of nanoparticles with a lanthanide fluoride core
(Gadolinium and Cerium trifluoride) surrounded by a coating of polyacrilic
acid. Chemical similarity between
different lanthanide-series elements allows core elements to be varied, altering
size and relaxivity as well as rendering the nanoparticles visible under
fluorescence microscopy via the addition of Europium or Terbium. The
polyacrilic acid coating can be functionalized to allow for cellular uptake.
This flexible contrast agent has been successfully used in vivo for dynamic
contrast enhanced MR imaging.
Keywords