Gadolinium (III)-Chelated Deformable Mesoporous Organosilica Nanoparticles as Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agent.

Abstract

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents, such as Gd-DTPA (Magnevist), have been routinely used for detecting tumors at an early stage. However, the rapid clearance by the kidney of Gd-DTPA leads to short blood circulation time, which limits further improvement of the contrast between tumorous and normal tissue. Inspired by the deformability of red blood cells, which improves their blood circulation, we fabricated a novel MRI contrast agent by incorporating Gd-DTPA into deformable mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles (D-MON). In vivo distribution showed that the novel contrast agent was able to depress rapid clearance by the liver and spleen, and the mean residence time was 20 hours longer than Gd-DTPA. Tumor MRI showed that the D-MON-based contrast agent was highly enriched in the tumor tissue and achieved prolonged high-contrast imaging. D-MON significantly improved the performance of clinical contrast agent Gd-DTPA, exhibiting good potential in clinical applications. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.