Clinical applications of perfluorocarbon nanoparticles for molecular imaging and targeted therapeutics

Trung D Tran¹, Shelton D Caruthers^1,2, Michael Hughes¹, John N Marsh¹, Tillmann Cyrus¹, Patrick M Winter¹, Anne M Neubauer¹, Samuel A Wickline¹, Gregory M Lanza¹

¹Division of Cardiology, Washington University Medical School, 660 South Euclid Blvd, St Louis, Missouri, USA; ²Philips Medical Systems, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Abstract: Molecular imaging is a novel tool that has allowed non-invasive diagnostic imaging to transition from gross anatomical description to identification of specific tissue epitopes and observation of biological processes at the cellular level. This technique has been confined to the field of nuclear imaging; however, recent advances in nanotechnology have extended this research to include ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. The exploitation of nanotechnology for MR and US molecular imaging has generated several candidate contrast agents. One multimodality platform, targeted perfluorocarbon (PFC) nanoparticles, is useful for noninvasive detection with US and MR, targeted drug delivery, and quantification.

Keywords: nanoparticles, perfluorocarbon, molecular imaging, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging