Abstract #0113

Carbon Nanodots as Diamagnetic CEST MRI Contrast Agents for Cell Labeling

Jia Zhang¹, Minling Gao^2,3, Yue Yuan^1,4, Yuguo Li¹, Peter van Zijl^1,5, Mingyao Ying^2,3, and Guanshu Liu^1,5

¹Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States, ²Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States, ³Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States, ⁴Institute for Cell Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States, ⁵F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States

Carbon nanodots (Cdots), are a relatively new type of eco-friendly nanoparticles that are being utilized extensively as drug carriers with inherent fluorescence imaging. In the present study, we explored their intrinsic chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) MRI contrast. We showed that Cdots can be directly detected by CEST MRI due to the abundant exchangeable hydrogen protons on their surfaces, which allows Cdots inherently bimodal contrast agents. Application to cell labeling was demonstrated in vitro. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of diamagnetic nanoparticulate CEST MRI contrast agents.

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