Lanthanoid endohedral metallofullerenols for MRI contrast agents

Water-soluble multi-hydroxyl lanthanoid (La, Ce, Gd, Dy, and Er) endohedral metallofullerenes (metallofullerenols, M@C(82)(OH)(n)()) have been synthesized and characterized for the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. The observed longitudinal and transverse relaxivities for water protons, r(1) and r(2), of the metallofullerenols are in the range 0.8-73 and 1.2-80 (sec(-1)mM(-1)), respectively, which are significantly higher than those of the corresponding lanthanoid-DTPA chelate complexes. Among these Gd-metallofullerenols, Gd@C(82)(OH)(n)() has exhibited the highest r(1) and r(2) values in consistent with our previous results. The observed large r(1) of the current metallofullerenols can mainly be ascribed to the dipole-dipole relaxation together with a substantial decrease of the overall molecular rotational motion. The large r(2), except for the Gd-metallofullerenols, have been attributed to the so-called Curie spin relaxation. The MRI phantom studies are also performed and are consistent with these results. The metallofullerenols will be an ideal model for future MRI contrast agents with higher proton relaxivities.