Scientific Reports (May 2018)

Cerium oxide nanoparticles with antioxidant capabilities and gadolinium integration for MRI contrast enhancement

  • Peter Eriksson,
  • Alexey A. Tal,
  • Andreas Skallberg,
  • Caroline Brommesson,
  • Zhangjun Hu,
  • Robert D. Boyd,
  • Weine Olovsson,
  • Neal Fairley,
  • Igor A. Abrikosov,
  • Xuanjun Zhang,
  • Kajsa Uvdal

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-25390-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Abstract The chelating gadolinium-complex is routinely used as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) -contrast enhancer. However, several safety issues have recently been reported by FDA and PRAC. There is an urgent need for the next generation of safer MRI-contrast enhancers, with improved local contrast and targeting capabilities. Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeNPs) are designed with fractions of up to 50% gadolinium to utilize the superior MRI-contrast properties of gadolinium. CeNPs are well-tolerated in vivo and have redox properties making them suitable for biomedical applications, for example scavenging purposes on the tissue- and cellular level and during tumor treatment to reduce in vivo inflammatory processes. Our near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) studies show that implementation of gadolinium changes the initial co-existence of oxidation states Ce3+ and Ce4+ of cerium, thereby affecting the scavenging properties of the nanoparticles. Based on ab initio electronic structure calculations, we describe the most prominent spectral features for the respective oxidation states. The as-prepared gadolinium-implemented CeNPs are 3–5 nm in size, have r1-relaxivities between 7–13 mM−1 s−1 and show clear antioxidative properties, all of which means they are promising theranostic agents for use in future biomedical applications.