Long-term safety of combined intracerebral delivery of free gadolinium and targeted chemotherapeutic agent PRX321

Nanoparticles in magnetic resonance imaging: from simple to dual contrast agents

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become one of the most widely used and powerful tools for noninvasive clinical diagnosis owing to its high degree of soft tissue contrast, spatial resolution, and depth of penetration. MRI signal intensity is related to the relaxation times (T₁, spin–lattice relaxation and T₂, spin–spin relaxation) of in vivo water protons. To increase contrast, various inorganic nanoparticles and complexes (the so-called contrast agents) are administered prior to the scanning. Shortening T₁ and T₂ increases the corresponding relaxation rates, 1/T₁ and 1/T₂, producing hyperintense and hypointense signals respectively in shorter times. Moreover, the signal-to-noise ratio can be improved with the acquisition of a large number of measurements. The contrast agents used are generally based on either iron oxide nanoparticles or ferrites, providing negative contrast in T₂-weighted images; or complexes of lanthanide metals (mostly containing gadolinium ions), providing positive contrast in T₁-weighted images. Recently, lanthanide complexes have been immobilized in nanostructured materials in order to develop a new class of contrast agents with functions including blood-pool and organ (or tumor) targeting. Meanwhile, to overcome the limitations of individual imaging modalities, multimodal imaging techniques have been developed. An important challenge is to design all-in-one contrast agents that can be detected by multimodal techniques. Magnetoliposomes are efficient multimodal contrast agents. They can simultaneously bear both kinds of contrast and can, furthermore, incorporate targeting ligands and chains of polyethylene glycol to enhance the accumulation of nanoparticles at the site of interest and the bioavailability, respectively. Here, we review the most important characteristics of the nanoparticles or complexes used as MRI contrast agents.

The MRI contrast agent gadoteridol enhances distribution of rAAV1 in the rat hippocampus

Contrast agents are commonly used in combination with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor the distribution of molecules in the brain. Recent experiments conducted in our laboratory have shown that co-infusion of recombinant Adeno-associated virus serotype 5 (rAAV5) and the MRI contrast agent gadoteridol (Gd) enhances vector transduction of in the rat striatum. The goal of this study was to determine whether gadoteridol may also be used as a tool to enhance transduction efficiency of rAAV1 and rAAV5 within the rat hippocampus. We show that Gd/rAAV1-GFP but not Gd/rAAV5-GFP co-infusion results in significantly higher distribution of the transgene both in the injected hemisphere as well as in the contralateral side and adjacent areas of cortex along the injection track. We also show that Gd/rAAV1-GFP co-infusion has no deleterious effect on hippocampal function as assessed by two tests of spatial memory formation. This work indicates that gadoteridol can be exploited as a method to increase transduction efficiency of AAV1 in the hippocampus for animal studies.

Colocalization of gadolinium-diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid with high-molecular-weight molecules after intracerebral convection-enhanced delivery in humans

BACKGROUND

Convection-enhanced delivery (CED) permits site-specific therapeutic drug delivery within interstitial spaces at increased dosages through circumvention of the blood-brain barrier. CED is currently limited by suboptimal methodologies for monitoring the delivery of therapeutic agents that would permit technical optimization and enhanced therapeutic efficacy.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether a readily available small-molecule MRI contrast agent, gadolinium-diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA), could effectively track the distribution of larger therapeutic agents.

METHODS

Gd-DTPA was coinfused with the larger molecular tracer, I-labeled human serum albumin (I-HSA), during CED of an EGFRvIII-specific immunotoxin as part of treatment for a patient with glioblastoma.

RESULTS

Infusion of both tracers was safe in this patient. Analysis of both Gd-DTPA and I-HSA during and after infusion revealed a high degree of anatomical and volumetric overlap.

CONCLUSION

Gd-DTPA may be able to accurately demonstrate the anatomic and volumetric distribution of large molecules used for antitumor therapy with high resolution and in combination with fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) imaging, and provide additional information about leaks into cerebrospinal fluid spaces and resection cavities. Similar studies should be performed in additional patients to validate our findings and help refine the methodologies we used.

Magnetite Nanoparticles for Medical MR Imaging

Nanotechnology has given scientists new tools for the development of advanced materials for the detection and diagnosis of disease. Iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) in particular have been extensively investigated as novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents due to a combination of favorable superparamagnetic properties, biodegradability, and surface properties of easy modification for improved in vivo kinetics and multifunctionality. This review discusses the basics of MR imaging, the origin of SPION's unique magnetic properties, recent developments in MRI acquisition methods for detection of SPIONs, synthesis and post-synthesis processes that improve SPION's imaging characteristics, and an outlook on the translational potential of SPIONs.