Heterogeneous Iron Oxide/Dysprosium Oxide Nanoparticles Target Liver for Precise Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Liver Fibrosis.

Abstract

Challenges remain in precisely diagnosing the progress of liver fibrosis in a noninvasive way. We here synthesized small (4 nm) heterogeneous iron oxide/dysprosium oxide nanoparticles (IO-DyO NPs) as a contrast agent (CA) for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to precisely diagnose liver fibrosis in vivo at both 7.0 and 9.4 T field strength. Our IO-DyO NPs can target the liver and show an increased T2 relaxivity along with an increase of magnetic field strength. At a ultrahigh magnetic field, IO-DyO NPs can significantly improve spatial/temporal image resolution and signal-to-noise ratio of the liver and precisely distinguish the early and moderate liver fibrosis stages. Our IO-DyO NP-based MRI diagnosis can exactly match biopsy (a gold standard for liver fibrosis diagnosis in the clinic) but avoid the invasiveness of biopsy. Moreover, our IO-DyO NPs show satisfactory biosafety in vitro and in vivo. This work illustrates an advanced T2 CA used in ultrahigh-field MRI (UHFMRI) for the precise diagnosis of liver fibrosis via a noninvasive means.

• Authors: Yekkuni L Balachandran, Wei Wang, Hongyi Yang, Haiyang Tong, Lulu Wang, Feng Liu, Hongsong Chen, Kai Zhong, Ye Liu, Xingyu Jiang
• Journal: ACS nano (ACS Nano) Vol. 16 Issue 4 Pg. 5647-5659 (04 26 2022) ISSN: 1936-086X [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 35312295 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Ferric Compounds
• Dysprosium
• ferric oxide
• dysprosium oxide

Topics

• Dysprosium
• Ferric Compounds
• Humans
• Liver Cirrhosis (diagnostic imaging)
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (methods)
• Nanoparticles