ABSTRACT
We provide a brief overview of the chemistry and most relevant properties of paramagnetic and diamagnetic contrast agents (CAs) for Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging. Paramagnetic CAs for MRI consist mainly of Gd(III) complexes from linear or macrocyclic polyaminopolycarboxylates. These agents reduce, the relaxation times T(1) and T(2) of the water protons in a concentration dependent manner, increasing selectively MRI contrast in those regions in which they accumulate. In most instances they provide anatomical information on the localization of lesions and in some specific cases they may allow to estimate some physiological properties of tissues including mainly vascular performance. Because of its ability to discriminate easily between normal and diseased tissue, extracellular pH (pH(e)) has been added recently, to the battery of variables amenable to MRI investigation. A variety of Gd(III) containing macrocycles sensitive to pH, endogenous or exogenous polypeptides or even liposomes have been investigated for this purpose, using the pH dependence of their relaxivity or magnetization transfer rate constant (chemical exchange saturation transfer, CEST). Many environmental circumstances in addition to pH affect, however, relaxivity or magnetization transfer rate constants of these agents, making the results of pH measurements by MRI difficult to interpret. To overcome these limitations, our laboratory synthesized and developed a novel series of diamagnetic CAs for Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging, a new family of monomeric and dimeric imidazolic derivatives able to provide unambiguous measurements of pH(e), independent of water relaxivity, diffusion or exchange.
Subject(s)
Contrast Media/chemistry , Gadolinium/chemistry , Image Enhancement/methods , Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods , Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy/methods , Electromagnetic Phenomena , Hydrogen-Ion ConcentrationABSTRACT
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) methods are currently used in the clinic for the non invasive detection and characterization of a wide variety of pathologies. Increases in the diagnostic efficiency of MRI have been helped by both the design of dedicated MR sequences revealing specific aspects of the pathology and by the development of more sensitive and selective Contrast Agents (CAs), capable of more precisely delineating the borderline regions. In the present review we focus on the synthetic strategies used to obtain MRI CAs containing heterocyclic rings.
Subject(s)
Contrast Media/chemical synthesis , Gadolinium/chemistry , Heterocyclic Compounds/chemical synthesis , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Organometallic Compounds/chemical synthesis , Contrast Media/chemistry , Heterocyclic Compounds/chemistry , Ligands , Organometallic Compounds/chemistryABSTRACT
We describe the synthesis of 1,omega-di-1H-imidazoles 2 and 3, derived from l-threitol and d-mannitol, respectively, showing suitable magnetic and toxicological properties, as novel extracellular pH indicators for 1H spectroscopic imaging by magnetic resonance methods.
