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Updated: Jul 8, 2026

Synthesis, Characterization, and Application of Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoprobes for Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis Detection
Published on: February 16, 2020
MRI detection of thrombin with aptamer functionalized superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles
Mehmet Veysel Yigit1, Debapriya Mazumdar, Yi Lu
1Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 600 S. Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Abstract:
Design of smart MRI contrast agent based on superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and aptamers has been described for the detection of human alpha-thrombin protein. The contrast agent is based on the assembly of the aptamer functionalized nanoparticles in the presence of thrombin. A detectable change in MRI signal is observed with 25 nM thrombin in human serum. Changes were neither observed with control analytes, streptavidin, or bovine serum albumin, nor with inactive aptamer functionalized nanoparticles.

