Polyaspartic Acid-Coated Paramagnetic Gadolinium Oxide Nanoparticles as a Dual-Modal T1 and T2 Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agent
Shanti Marasini, Huan Yue, Adibehalsadat Ghazanfari, Son Long Ho, Ji Ae Park, Soyeon Kim, Hyunsil Cha, Shuwen Liu, Tirusew Tegafaw, Mohammad Yaseen Ahmad, Abdullah Khamis Ali Al Saidi, Dejun Zhao, Ying Liu, Kwon Seok Chae, Yongmin Chang, Gang Ho Lee
Abstract
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.