Dual-Imaging Contrast Agents Work Under MRI, Near-Infrared
 

Dual-Imaging Contrast Agents Work Under MRI, Near-Infrared
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Contrast agents are used in medicine to*help visualize things*that certain imaging modalities, such as MR or CT, can**t resolve on their own. Typically, each modality has its own imaging agents that don’t help when switching to a**ther imaging system.*To help overcome this limitation, researchers at MIT developed na**particles that, depending on the situation, either fluoresce or*are visible under MRI.

The particles are a new variety of so-called branched-bottlebrush polymer dual-modality organic radical contrast agents. They are nitroxide radical-based na**structures that are excitable by near-infrared light and are readily identified under MRI. The team used the particles to follow the path of vitamin C spreading throughout the bodies of mice. High levels of vitamin C make the particles hard to see under MRI, but they’re readily apparent when illuminated with near-infrared. The opposite holds true at lower concentrations of vitamin C, so MRI is used to track it in that instance.

Study in Nature Communications:*Redox-responsive branched-bottlebrush polymers for in vivo MRI and fluorescence imaging…

More from MIT:*Na**particles that enable both MRI and fluorescent imaging could monitor cancer, other diseases….

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