68Ga-NODAGA-Indole: An Allysine-Reactive Positron Emission Tomography Probe for Molecular Imaging of Pulmonary Fibrogenesis.

Oxidized collagen, wherein lysine residues are converted to the aldehyde allysine, is a universal feature of fibrogenesis, i.e. actively progressive fibrosis. Here we report the small molecule, allysine-binding positron emission tomography probe, 68Ga-NODAGA-indole, that can noninvasively detect and quantify pulmonary fibrogenesis. We demonstrate that the uptake of 68Ga-NODAGA-indole in actively fibrotic lungs is 7-fold higher than in control groups and that uptake is linearly correlated ( R2 = 0.98) with the concentration of lung allysine.

Chemistry of MRI Contrast Agents: Current Challenges and New Frontiers.

Tens of millions of contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams are performed annually around the world. The contrast agents, which improve diagnostic accuracy, are almost exclusively small, hydrophilic gadolinium(III) based chelates. In recent years concerns have arisen surrounding the long-term safety of these compounds, and this has spurred research into alternatives. There has also been a push to develop new molecularly targeted contrast agents or agents that can sense pathological changes in the local environment. This comprehensive review describes the state of the art of clinically approved contrast agents, their mechanism of action, and factors influencing their safety. From there we describe different mechanisms of generating MR image contrast such as relaxation, chemical exchange saturation transfer, and direct detection and the types of molecules that are effective for these purposes. Next we describe efforts to make safer contrast agents either by increasing relaxivity, increasing resistance to metal ion release, or by moving to gadolinium(III)-free alternatives. Finally we survey approaches to make contrast agents more specific for pathology either by direct biochemical targeting or by the design of responsive or activatable contrast agents.

Nonradiative Deactivation of Lanthanoid Excited States by Inner-Sphere Carboxylates.

The vibrational deactivation of metal-centered excited states is one of the fundamental processes that governs the luminescence of inorganic luminophores. In molecular lanthanoid luminescence, the most reliable way to modulate and systematically investigate these processes is deuteration of X-H stretching modes (X = O, N, C). Apart from the effect of these high-energy vibrational motifs, very little is known about the impact of other oscillator fragments present in lanthanoid complexes. We have developed a synthetic protocol to efficiently and selectively label the popular chelator motif "pyridine-2-carboxylic acid" with stable (13)C/(18)O isotope at the carboxylate group. The corresponding isotopologic lanthanoid complexes (Ln = Sm, Eu, Ho) show a decrease of the local-mode carbonyl stretching frequency of up to 5% after isotopic substitution. While this does not seems to have any effect on the luminescence of lanthanoids with medium- to high-energy gaps (Sm and Eu), we have found the first example of a quantifiable luminescence isotope effect for one of the near-IR transitions of holmium ((3)K8 → (5)I5) that only involves the isotopic editing of the vibrational environment at the four carbonyl oscillators.

Synthesis of Inert Homo- and Heterodinuclear Rare-Earth Cryptates.

A new ditopic cryptand based on two tris(biaryl)-based binding pockets bridged by a 2,2'-bipyrimidine unit enables the selective synthesis of homo- and heterodinuclear rare-earth cryptates, which are kinetically inert under challenging conditions and can even be purified by preparative high-performance liquid chromatography.

Breakdown of the energy gap law in molecular lanthanoid luminescence: the smallest energy gap is not universally relevant for nonradiative deactivation.

For several decades, the energy gap law has been the prevalent theoretical framework for the discussion of nonradiative deactivation of lanthanoid luminescence in molecular coordination chemistry. Here we show experimentally on samarium and dysprosium model complexes that the size of the energy gap ΔE between a lanthanoid emitting state and the next-lower electronic state cannot be considered a reliable and accurate predictor of the quantitative extent of nonradiative deactivation by aromatic C-H and C-D oscillator overtones. Because the energy gap is the central pillar for the entire conceptual framework of the energy gap law, this finding amounts to largely invalidating this theory for the quantitative description of molecular multiphonon relaxation.

Perdeuterated 2,2'-bipyridine-6,6'-dicarboxylate: an extremely efficient sensitizer for thulium luminescence in solution.

Lanthanoid luminescence has become an important pillar for many modern photonics applications such as bioanalytical research or functional material science. So far, however, thulium despite having one of the most interesting photophysics among the lanthanoids has suffered from extremely low luminescence efficiencies in molecular complexes with organic sensitizer ligands. This has greatly hampered the investigation and application of thulium emission in solution. Here, the discovery of a powerful sensitizer for thulium photoluminescence is reported. The corresponding thulium complex exhibits emission efficiencies (quantum yield Φ > 0.12%; lifetime τobs = 4.6 µs; brightness ÎµΦ > 30 M(-1) cm(-1)) and can even be detected at low micromolar concentrations in high-phonon solvents like water without the need for laser excitation.

Understanding the quenching effects of aromatic C-H- and C-D-oscillators in near-IR lanthanoid luminescence.

Several series of selectively deuterated 2,2'-bipyridine-based cryptates with the near-IR emissive lanthanoids Pr, Nd, Er, and Yb are reported. The structural and luminescence properties of these complexes have been comprehensively investigated. A combination of experimental techniques (X-ray crystallography, lanthanoid-induced NMR shift analysis, luminescence, vibrational near-IR absorption) and theoretical concepts has been applied with a focus on nonradiative deactivation through multiphonon relaxation of lanthanoid excited states by aromatic, high-energy C-(H/D) oscillators. It is shown that the characteristics for the overtones of these vibrational modes deviate substantially from harmonic oscillators and that anharmonicity within a local-mode Morse model is an essential parameter for any accurate description. The spectral overlap integrals (SOIs) of lanthanoid electronic states with aromatic C-(H/D) overtones are evaluated quantitatively for different lanthanoid/oscillator combinations and the implications for luminescence enhancement through deuteration is discussed. Simple Gaussian functions are proposed as appropriate mathematical forms for the empirical approximation of SOIs.

Anomalous reversal of C-H and C-D quenching efficiencies in luminescent praseodymium cryptates.

A series of selectively deuterated praseodymium cryptates has been synthesized. Their luminescence lifetimes in solution range from 150 to 595 ns for the (1)D(2) → (3)F(4) transition. Global fitting of the nonradiative deactivation rate differences of the isotopologic C-(H/D) oscillators revealed that aromatic C-D overtones anomalously quench the luminescence more than C-H vibrations. This is explained by the dominance of Franck-Condon overlap factors that greatly favor C-D oscillators, which are in almost ideal resonance with the relevant energy gap (1)D(2)-(1)G(4) of praseodymium.

Quantification of C-H quenching in near-IR luminescent ytterbium and neodymium cryptates.

Two series of selectively deuterated cryptates with the lanthanoids Yb and Nd have been synthesized, and the luminescence lifetimes for the corresponding near-IR emission bands have been measured. Global fitting of these lifetime data combined with structural analysis allows for the accurate quantification of the contributions of individual C-H oscillators groups in the ligand to the nonradiative deactivation rates of the emissive lanthanoid states.