title: T₁-MRI Fluorescent Iron Oxide Nanoparticles by Microwave Assisted Synthesis.
abstract: Iron oxide nanoparticles have long been studied as a T₂ contrast agent in MRI due to their superparamagnetic behavior. T₁-based positive contrast, being much more favorable for clinical application due to brighter and more accurate signaling is, however, still limited to gadolinium- or manganese-based imaging tools. Though being the only available commercial positive-contrast agents, they lack an efficient argument when it comes to biological toxicity and their circulatory half-life in blood. The need arises to design a biocompatible contrast agent with a scope for easy surface functionalization for long circulation in blood and/or targeted imaging. We hereby propose an extremely fast microwave synthesis for fluorescein-labeled extremely-small iron oxide nanoparticles (fdIONP), in a single step, as a viable tool for cell labeling and T₁-MRI. We demonstrate the capabilities of such an approach through high-quality magnetic resonance angiographic images of mice.
authors.affiliation: Spanish Cardiovascular Research Centre (CNIC) and Spanish Pulmonary Diseases Network (CIBERES) C/Melchor Fernández-Almagro 3, 28029 Madrid, Spain. riju.bhavesh@cnic.es.
authors.forename: Riju
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhavesh
authors.affiliation: Spanish Cardiovascular Research Centre (CNIC) and Spanish Pulmonary Diseases Network (CIBERES) C/Melchor Fernández-Almagro 3, 28029 Madrid, Spain. anavictoria.lechuga@cnic.es.
authors.forename: Ana V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Lechuga-Vieco
authors.affiliation: Spanish Cardiovascular Research Centre (CNIC) and Spanish Pulmonary Diseases Network (CIBERES) C/Melchor Fernández-Almagro 3, 28029 Madrid, Spain. ruizcabe@cnic.es.|Department of Physicochemistry II, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain. ruizcabe@cnic.es.
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Cabello
authors.affiliation: Spanish Cardiovascular Research Centre (CNIC) and Spanish Pulmonary Diseases Network (CIBERES) C/Melchor Fernández-Almagro 3, 28029 Madrid, Spain. fherranz@cnic.es.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Herranz
keywords: MRI; T1 contrast; iron oxide nanoparticles; microwave