Min-Kyoung Kang1,
Hee-Kyung Kim1, Ki-Hye Jung2, Ji-Ae Park3,
Seung-Tae Woo4, Joo-Hyun Kim4, Eun-Young Jeon5,
Tae-Jeong Kim2, Yongmin Chang1, 6
1Medical
& Biological Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea; 2Applied
Chemistry, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea; 3Molecular
Imaging Research Center, Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical
Science, Seoul, Korea; 4Bayer Healthcare, Medical care, Seoul,
Korea; 5The Advanced Medical Technology Cluster for Diagnosis
& Prediction, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea; 6Diagnostic
Radiology and Molecular Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea
Gadolinium nanoparticles (GdNPs) based perfectly soluble potential theragnostic agents formulated as Gd@SiO2-NHCO-DO3A-BT. The preparation initially requires the formation of Gd@SiO2 through self-condensation of TEOS on the surface of GdNPs. Gd@SiO2-NH2 thus formed was dispersed in diethylen glycol to react with APTES. In order to increase solubility as well as used by potential bimodal contrast agents, Gd@SiO2-NH2 was further conjugated with DO3A-benzothiazole to give the desired product Gd@SiO2-NHCO-DO3A-BT. Gd@SiO2-NHCO-DO3A reveals high MR relaxivity (R1 = 8.29 mM-1s-1) and may be put into a new family of potential multifunctional MRI/optical CAs.