Published In
Frontiers in Chemistry
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2018
Subjects
Nanostructured materials
Abstract
Although paraCEST is a method with immense scope for generating image contrast in MRI, it suffers from the serious drawback of high detection limits. For a typical discrete paraCEST agent the detection limit is roughly an order of magnitude higher than that of a clinically used relaxation agent. One solution to this problem may be the incorporation of a large payload of paraCEST agents into a single macromolecular agent. Here we report a new synthetic method for accomplishing this goal: incorporating a large payload of the paraCEST agent DyDOTAM3+ into a Reverse Assembled nano-Capsule. An aggregate can be generated between this chelate and polyacrylic acid (PAA) after the addition of ethylene diamine. Subsequent addition of polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAH) followed by silica nanoparticles generated a robust encapsulating shell and afforded capsule with a mean hydrodynamic diameter of 650 ± 250 nm. Unfortunately this encapsulation did not have the effect of amplifying the CEST effect per agent, but quenched the CEST altogether. The quenching effect of encapsulation could be attributed to the effect of slowing molecular tumbling, which is inevitable when the chelate is incorporated into a nano-scale material. This increases the transverse relaxation rate of chelate protons and a theoretical examination using Solomon Bloembergen Morgan theory and the Bloch equations shows that the increase in the transverse relaxation rate constant for the amide protons, in evenmodestly sized nano-materials, is sufficient to significantly quench CEST.
DOI
10.3389/fchem.2018.00096
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/25088
Citation Details
Farashishiko, A., Slack, J. R., Botta, M., & Woods, M. (2018). ParaCEST Agents Encapsulated in Reverse Nano-Assembled Capsules (RACs): How Slow Molecular Tumbling Can Quench CEST Contrast. Frontiers in chemistry, 6, 96.
Description
Copyright © 2018 Farashishiko, Slack, Botta and Woods. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.