Accurate cancer detection and characterization with MRI is hampered by the lack of safe and effective targeted MRI contrast agents. In this work, we have designed and synthesized a high-relaxivity targeted contrast agent by conjugating ZD2 peptide to hydroxylated Gd3N@C80. ZD2-Gd3N@C80 has a high T1 relaxivity of 76.4 mM-1s-1 per Gd at 1.5 Tesla and a small diameter of 1 nm on average. At a low dose of 5 µmol Gd/kg, ZD2-Gd3N@C80 is able to produce prominent contrast enhancement in the highly metastatic MDA-MB-231 triple-negative breast cancer model, but not in the estrogen-dependent MCF-7 tumors.
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