A Peptide-Targeted MRI Contrast Agent for Cancer Molecular Imaging

Xueming Wu¹, Mingqian Tan¹, Zheng-Rong Lu¹

This study designed, synthesized and evaluated a peptide-based low molecular weight MRI contrast agent specific to a cancer-related biomarker for cancer molecular imaging with MRI. The cancer imaging effectiveness of the targeted agent was demonstrated by using athymic nude mice bearing orthotopic human prostate PC-3 tumor model. Our preliminary results showed the agent was able to deliver a sufficient amount of Gd-DOTA chelates to its molecular target. The newly developed targeted agent is promising for cancer MR molecular imaging.