Polyaspartic Acid-Coated Paramagnetic Gadolinium Oxide Nanoparticles as a Dual-Modal T1 and T2 Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agent

• Published in: Applied sciences Vol. 11; no. 17; p. 8222
• Main Authors: Marasini, Shanti, Yue, Huan, Ghazanfari, Adibehalsadat, Ho, Son Long, Park, Ji Ae, Kim, Soyeon, Cha, Hyunsil, Liu, Shuwen, Tegafaw, Tirusew, Ahmad, Mohammad Yaseen, Saidi, Abdullah Khamis Ali Al, Zhao, Dejun, Liu, Ying, Chae, Kwon-Seok, Chang, Yongmin, Lee, Gang Ho
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 04.09.2021
• Subjects: Coatings; Contrast agents; Contrast media; Cytotoxicity; Ethanol; Fourier transforms; Gadolinium oxide; gadolinium oxide nanoparticle; Gadolinium oxides; Image contrast; Ligands; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medical research; Nanoparticles; Particle size; polyaspartic acid; Polymers; Resonance; T1 and T2 dual-modal imaging; United States > US
• ISSN: 2076-3417; 2076-3417
• DOI: 10.3390/app11178222

Surface-coating polymers contribute to nanoparticle-based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents because they can affect the relaxometric properties of the nanoparticles. In this study, polyaspartic acid (PASA)-coated ultrasmall Gd2O3 nanoparticles with an average particle diameter of 2.0 nm were synthesized using the one-pot polyol method. The synthesized nanoparticles exhibited r1 and r2 of 19.1 and = 53.7 s−1mM−1, respectively, (r1 and r2 are longitudinal and transverse water–proton spin relaxivities, respectively) at 3.0 T MR field, approximately 5 and 10 times higher than those of commercial Gd-chelate contrast agents, respectively. The T1 and T2 MR images could be obtained due to an appreciable r2/r1 ratio of 2.80, indicating their potential as a dual-modal T1 and T2 MRI contrast agent.