Dual-modal MRI T1-T2 Contrast Agent Based on Dynamic Organic Gadolinium Nanoparticles

Abstract

In this work, a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent based on organic gadolinium (Gd) nanoparticles was designed, synthesized and tested. Based on a biocompatible condensation reaction between 1, 2-aminothiol and cyano group, organic Gd nanoparticles with well-controlled diameter in the range of 8~23 nm were successfully synthesized. When used as the MRI contrast agent, the organic Gd-nanoparticles exhibited slowly weakened longitudinal relaxivity with time. Meanwhile, its transverse relaxivity was observed to be enhanced firstly and then gradually weakened, which could be attributed to the diameter increase of the Gd-nanoparticles. The simultaneous existence of time-dependent longitudinal and transverse relaxivities of the organic Gd-nanoparticles suggests their potential to be advanced T1-T2 dual-modal contrast agent for MRI.

Keywords

• magnetic resonance imaging (mri)
• contrast agent
• dual modality
• nanoparticle