Evaluation of the Biodistribution of Serinolamide-Derivatized C60 Fullerene.

Carbon nanoparticles have consistently been of great interest in medicine. However, there are currently no clinical materials based on carbon nanoparticles, due to inconsistent biodistribution and excretion data. In this work, we have synthesized a novel C60 derivative with a metal chelating agent (1,4,7-Triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triacetic acid; NOTA) covalently bound to the C60 cage and radiolabeled with copper-64 (t1/2 = 12.7 h). Biodistribution of the material was assessed in vivo using positron emission tomography (PET). Bingel-Hirsch chemistry was employed to functionalize the fullerene cage with highly water-soluble serinolamide groups allowing this new C60 conjugate to clear quickly from mice almost exclusively through the kidneys. Comparing the present results to the larger context of reports of biocompatible fullerene derivatives, this work offers an important evaluation of the in vivo biodistribution, using experimental evidence to establish functionalization guidelines for future C60-based biomedical platforms.

A New High-Performance Gadonanotube-Polymer Hybrid Material for Stem Cell Labeling and Tracking by MRI.

A gentle, rapid method has been developed to introduce a polyacrylic acid (PAA) polymer coating on the surface of gadonanotubes (GNTs) which significantly increases their dispersibility in water without the need of a surfactant. As a result, the polymer, with its many carboxylic acid groups, coats the surface of the GNTs to form a new GNT-polymer hybrid material (PAA-GNT) which can be highly dispersed in water (ca. 20 mg·mL-1) at physiological pH. When dispersed in water, the new PAA-GNT material is a powerful MRI contrast agent with an extremely short water proton spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) which results in a T1-weighted relaxivity of 150 mM-1·s-1 per Gd3+ ion at 1.5 T. Furthermore, the PAA-GNTs have been used to safely label porcine bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells for magnetic resonance imaging. The labeled cells display excellent image contrast in phantom imaging experiments, and transmission electron microscopy images of the labeled cells reveal the presence of highly dispersed PAA-GNTs within the cytoplasm with 1014 Gd3+ ions per cell.

Toward carbon nanotube-based imaging agents for the clinic.

Among the many applications for carbon nanotubes (CNTs), their use in medicine has drawn special attention due to their potential for a variety of therapeutic and diagnostic applications. As progress toward clinical applications continues, monitoring CNTs in vivo will be essential to evaluate their biodistribution, potential toxicity, therapeutic activity, and any physiological changes that the material may induce in specific tissues. There are many different imaging modalities to visualize and track CNTs in vivo, yet only a few are full-body penetrating, a central characteristic that widens their clinical utility. In order to visualize CNTs, chemical modification is often required for the material to be used as a platform to carry imaging agents compatible with one or more of the clinical imaging techniques. Here, we focus on the most recent work involving the use of CNTs as imaging agents for the non-invasive, full-body penetrating clinical modalities of MRI, PET, SPECT, and X-ray CT. The synthesis and modification of the CNT materials are discussed, as well as relevant preclinical studies.