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Abstract
Owing to a higher demand for glucosamine (GlcN) in metabolic processes in tumor cells than in normal cells (i.e., GlcN effects), tumor imaging in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be highly improved using GlcN-conjugated MRI contrast agents. Here, GlcN was conjugated with polyacrylic acid (PAA)-coated ultrasmall gadolinium oxide nanoparticles (UGONs) (davg = 1.76 nm). Higher positive (brighter or T1) contrast enhancements at various organs including tumor site were observed in human brain glioma (U87MG) tumor-bearing mice after the intravenous injection of GlcN-PAA-UGONs into their tail veins, compared with those obtained with PAA-UGONs as control, which were rapidly excreted through the bladder. Importantly, the contrast enhancements of the GlcN-PAA-UGONs with respect to those of the PAA-UGONs were the highest in the tumor site owing to GlcN effects. These results demonstrated that GlcN-PAA-UGONs can serve as excellent T1 MRI contrast agents in tumor imaging via GlcN effects.

Affiliations

Shuwen Liu  1 , Huan Yue  1 , Son Long Ho  1 , Soyeon Kim  2 , Ji Ae Park  2 , Tirusew Tegafaw  1 , Mohammad Yaseen Ahmad  1 , Seungho Kim  3 , Abdullah Khamis Ali Al Saidi  1 , Dejun Zhao  1 , Ying Liu  1 , Sung-Wook Nam  3 , Kwon Seok Chae  4 , Yongmin Chang  3 , Gang Ho Lee  1
1 Department of Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences, Kyungpook National University, Taegu 41566, Korea.
2 Division of RI-Convergence Research, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences (KIRAMS), Seoul 01817, Korea.
3 Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Taegu 41944, Korea.
4 Department of Biology Education, Teachers' College, Kyungpook National University, Taegu 41566, Korea.