Polymer-based delivery systems with metal complexes as contrast agents for medical imaging

Abstract

Medical contrast agents are indispensable for bioimaging in deep tissues, which significantly facilitate accurate clinical diagnoses. The forefront of current research focuses on the development of contrast agents with high contrast, low toxicity, and prolonger circulation half-life. Through combining different metal elements with polymer carriers, polymer-based delivery systems with metal complexes demonstrate low toxicity, versatility, and multifunctionality, which attract broad interest in medical imaging field. This review summarizes recent progress of using polymer-based delivery systems with metal complexes in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), optical imaging (OI), computed tomography (CT), radiological imaging (RI), and other imaging applications.