Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important tools for the diagnosis of various diseases, such as cancers. Demanding, therefore, for research and development of effective contrast agents that can be used in high field MRI is growing. Dotarem, gadolinium-based contrast agent, is conventionally used contrast agent in clinical application. While Dotarem is a safe and effective as a MRI contrast agent, it exhibits relatively low r1 relaxivity (3-5 mM-1s-1). To enhance the r1 relaxivity, various macromolecule conjugates have been developed. Although most of macromolecule conjugates exhibited enhanced r1 relaxivity at low field MRI (1.4T), r1 relaxivity significantly decreased at high field magnet (4T and higher) that hampers clinically relevant further studies. <br/> Here, we developed protein cage nanoparticle-based contrast agents which retain the high r1 relaxvity at high field MRI (7T) by chemically conjugating Gd (III)-chelates complexes and post-translationally ligating targeting protein moieties to protein cage nanoparticles. Targeting moieties allow them to specifically bind to their target cells and accumulate at the lesion site. Target specific protein cage nanoparticle conjugates we developed here could be used as effective high-field MRI contrast agents.

Developing high-field MRI contrast conjugate agents using protein cage nanoparticles

254th National Meeting (2017)

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