Contrast agents are often used to improve the visibility of
radiology of soft tissues and internal body structures, especially in cardiovascular and cerebral diseases. The choice of FDA-approved MRI and MRA contrast agents is fairly limited and they all bear some drawbacks. Gadolinium is the most commonly used MRI contrast agent, but it leaves deposits in the bones and brain, and is toxic for patients with kidney problems. As an alternative, contrast agents based on
iron oxide nanoparticles are practically unused because of the difficult readability of the results. Unlike gadolinium, which appears as a white signal, iron oxide is difficult to distinguished from air, hemorrhage, calcification, metal deposition, and blood clots. HYEON Taeghwan, director of the Center for Nanoparticle Research explains: "Let's take the example of a MRI analysis of a brain with Alzheimer's: iron oxide in the blood vessels would appear as black and the amyloid plaques as gray. It is very hard to recognize the plaques from the background. For it is reason, the current iron oxide nanoparticles are not used anymore and we started to look for other options." This occurs because gadolinium is a so-called T1-type contrast agent, while the current iron oxide is classified as T2.
Previously, the IBS team designed ultrasmall T1 iron oxide nanoparticles (PEG-IONCs), proved the possibility to synthesize them in large quantities, and tested them on mice. Now their research has leaped forward: "Research on mice cannot directly translate to humans, so we wanted to test if these nanoparticles work on large animals, like dogs, rabbits and monkeys. Eventually, our goal is to be able to understand if they can become a new diagnostic tool for humans," comments Hyeon.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-mri-contrast-agent-big-animals.html#jCp
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