Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Atherosclerotic Plaque at Clinically Relevant Field Strengths (1T) by Targeting the Integrin α4ß1.
Sci Rep
; 8(1): 3733, 2018 02 27.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29487319
Inflammation drives the degradation of atherosclerotic plaque, yet there are no non-invasive techniques available for imaging overall inflammation in atherosclerotic plaques, especially in the coronary arteries. To address this, we have developed a clinically relevant system to image overall inflammatory cell burden in plaque. Here, we describe a targeted contrast agent (THI0567-targeted liposomal-Gd) that is suitable for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and binds with high affinity and selectivity to the integrin α4ß1(very late antigen-4, VLA-4), a key integrin involved in recruiting inflammatory cells to atherosclerotic plaques. This liposomal contrast agent has a high T1 relaxivity (~2 × 105 mM-1s-1 on a particle basis) resulting in the ability to image liposomes at a clinically relevant MR field strength. We were able to visualize atherosclerotic plaques in various regions of the aorta in atherosclerosis-prone ApoE-/- mice on a 1 Tesla small animal MRI scanner. These enhanced signals corresponded to the accumulation of monocyte/macrophages in the subendothelial layer of atherosclerotic plaques in vivo, whereas non-targeted liposomal nanoparticles did not demonstrate comparable signal enhancement. An inflammatory cell-targeted method that has the specificity and sensitivity to measure the inflammatory burden of a plaque could be used to noninvasively identify patients at risk of an acute ischemic event.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
/
Integrin alpha4beta1
/
Plaque, Atherosclerotic
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
Sci Rep
Year:
2018
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Estados Unidos
Country of publication:
Reino Unido