title: A smart magnetic resonance contrast agent for selective copper sensing.
abstract: We describe the synthesis and properties of Copper-Gad-1 (CG1), a new type of smart magnetic resonance (MR) sensor for selective detection of copper. CG1 is composed of a gadolinium contrast agent core tethered to copper-selective recognition motif. Cu2+-induced modulation of inner-sphere water access to the Gd3+ center provides a sensing mechanism for reporting Cu2+ levels by reading out changes in longitudinal proton relaxivity values. CG1 features good selectivity for Cu2+ over abundant biological cations and a 41% increase in relaxivity upon Cu2+ binding and is capable of detecting micromolar changes in Cu2+ concentrations in aqueous media.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Emily L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Que
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D003287:Contrast Media / Q000737:chemistry*; D003300:Copper / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D015394:Molecular Structure
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D003300:Copper