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Updated: Jan 6, 2026
Preparation and In Vitro Characterization of Dendrimer-based Contrast Agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: December 4, 2016
Encapsulation of gadolinium ferrite nanoparticle in generation 4.5 poly(amidoamine) dendrimer for cancer theranostics
Tefera Worku Mekonnen1, Yihenew Simegniew Birhan1, Abegaz Tizazu Andrgie1
1Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, 106, Taiwan.
Abstract:
Iron oxide-based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents have negative contrast limitations in cancer diagnosis. Gadolinium (Gd)-based contrast agents show toxicity. To overcome these limitations, Gd-doped ferrite (Gd:Fe3O4 (GdIO) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized as T1-T2 dual-modal contrast agents for MRI-traced drug delivery. A theranostics GdIO encapsulated in a Generation 4.5 PAMAM dendrimer (G4.5-GdIO) was developed by alkaline coprecipitation. The drug-loading efficiency of the NPs was ∼24%. In the presence of a low-frequency alternating magnetic field (LFAMF), a maximum cumulative doxorubicin (DOX) release of ∼77.47% was achieved in a mildly acidic (pH = 5.0) simulated endosomal microenvironment. Relaxometric measurements indicated superior r1 (5.19 mM-1s-1) and r2 (26.13 mM-1s-1) for G4.5-GdIO relative to commercially available Gd-DTPA. Thus, G4.5-GdIO is promising as an alternative noninvasive MRI-traced cancer drug delivery system.
