AUTHOR=Li Zhongtao , Guo Jing , Zhang Mengmeng , Li Guohua , Hao Liguo 

TITLE=Gadolinium-Coated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticle for Magnetic Resonance Imaging

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2022.837032

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2022.837032

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=<p>Magnetic resonance molecular imaging can provide anatomic, functional and molecular information. However, because of the intrinsically low sensitivity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), high-performance MRI contrast agents are required to generate powerful image information for image diagnosis. Herein, we describe a novel <italic>T</italic><sub><italic>1</italic></sub> contrast agent with magnetic-imaging properties facilitated by the gadolinium oxide (Gd<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>) doping of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN). The size, morphology, composition, MRI relaxivity (<italic>r</italic><sub><italic>1</italic></sub>), surface area and pore size of these nanoparticles were evaluated following their conjugation with Gd<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> to produce Gd<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>@MSN. This unique structure led to a significant enhancement in <italic>T</italic><sub><italic>1</italic></sub> contrast with longitudinal relaxivity (<italic>r</italic><sub><italic>1</italic></sub>) as high as 51.85 ± 1.38 mM<sup>−1</sup>s<sup>−1</sup>. Gd<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>@MSN has a larger <italic>T</italic><sub><italic>1</italic></sub> relaxivity than commercial gadolinium diethylene triamine pentaacetate (Gd-DTPA), likely due to the geometrical confinement effect of silica nanoparticles. These results suggest that we could successfully prepare a novel high-performance <italic>T</italic><sub><italic>1</italic></sub> contrast agent, which may be a potential candidate for <italic>in-vivo</italic> MRI.</p>