Abstract
X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging can produce three-dimensional and high-resolution anatomical images without invasion, which is extremely useful for disease diagnosis in the clinic. However, its applications are still severely limited by the intrinsic drawbacks of contrast media (mainly iodinated water-soluble molecules), such as rapid clearance, serious toxicity, inefficient targetability and poor sensitivity. Due to their high biocompatibility, flexibility in preparation and modification and simplicity for drug loading, organic nanoparticles (NPs), including liposomes, nanoemulsions, micelles, polymersomes, dendrimers, polymer conjugates and polymeric particles, have demonstrated tremendous potential for use in the efficient delivery of iodinated contrast media (ICMs). Herein, we comprehensively summarized the strategies and applications of organic NPs, especially polymer-based NPs, for the delivery of ICMs in CT imaging. We mainly focused on the use of polymeric nanoplatforms to prolong circulation time, reduce toxicity and enhance the targetability of ICMs. The emergence of some new technologies, such as theragnostic NPs and multimodal imaging and their clinical translations, are also discussed.
Highlights
Noninvasive in vivo bioimaging techniques are extremely valuable and useful for the visualization of an abnormal state within the body, the detection of the pathological situations of patients, assessment of the therapy efficacy and disease management [1,2]
Due to the high simplicity and versatility in preparation, the wide availability of starting materials and the extremely high reactivity with alcohols and phenols, or ammonia and amines, iodine-containing acyl chlorides were widely conjugated onto various polymer chains, such as celluloses [58], chitosan [50,59] and polyvinyl alcohol [52], as well as dendrimers [54,55,56]. These results indicated that strategies based on iodinated macromolecular contrast media have great potential to overcome those intrinsic limitations of small molecular ICM compounds
Compared with free liposomes or liposomes loaded with Iopamidol alone, liposomes coloaded with Iopamidol/Lipiodol after intravenous injection into rats produced more pronounced contrast enhancement and more significant persistence in reticuloendothelial system (RES)-rich organs, such as the liver and spleen. These results indicated that liposomes can serve as an RES-targeted contrast agent for targeted computed tomography (CT) imaging [106]
Summary
Noninvasive in vivo bioimaging techniques are extremely valuable and useful for the visualization of an abnormal state within the body, the detection of the pathological situations of patients, assessment of the therapy efficacy and disease management [1,2]. The advantages of FI and LI imaging are their high sensitivity and high temporal resolution Their clinical applications are severely impeded by the limited depth of light penetration through the tissues [6]. Among all imaging modalities, computed tomography (CT) imaging has become one of the most powerful and popular imaging modalities for diseases diagnosis in modern clinical practice [1,8,9,10] It can offer three-dimensional (3D) anatomic images with excellent spatial resolution based on X-ray attenuation. Due to the big difference between electron-dense bones and surrounding soft tissues, bone structures in the whole body can be visible using CT imaging under X-ray irradiation. Barium- and iodine-based compounds are routinely used as contrast media for in vivo CT imaging. The yearly use of the ICMs was estimated to reach approximately 90 million doses worldwide
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