Emergent Fluorous Molecules and Their Uses in Molecular Imaging

Area of Science:

• * Chemistry of Materials
• * Nanotechnology
• * Biomedical Imaging

Background:

• * Fluorocarbon nanoemulsions (FC NEs) have a proven safety profile and are used in clinical ultrasound imaging.
• * Functionalizing FC NEs is challenging due to the inertness and unique properties of fluorocarbons.
• * Existing methods face limitations in solubility, colloidal stability, and biocompatibility.

Purpose of the Study:

• * To summarize recent advances in functionalizing FC NEs with novel fluorous molecules.
• * To highlight the development of new fluorous chelators, fluorophores, and peptides for enhanced imaging applications.
• * To demonstrate the potential of functionalized FC NEs as multimodal imaging agents.

Main Methods:

• * Design and synthesis of novel fluorous molecules (chelators, fluorophores, peptides) soluble in FC oils.
• * Encapsulation of metal ions (e.g., Fe3+, 89Zr, Eu3+) within FC NEs for multimodal imaging.
• * Formulation of FC NEs with soluble fluorophores and surface modification with fluorous peptides.

Main Results:

• * Developed stable, biocompatible fluorous chelators capable of binding various metal ions.
• * Demonstrated enhanced MRI (19F T1), PET (89Zr), and fluorescence imaging capabilities using functionalized FC NEs.
• * Achieved an 8-fold increase in NE uptake in specific cell types using fluorous peptides, improving in vivo detection sensitivity.

Conclusions:

• * Functionalized FC NEs represent a powerful platform for developing advanced multimodal imaging agents.
• * Novel fluorous molecules significantly overcome previous limitations in FC NE functionalization.
• * These advancements enable sensitive and cell-specific in vivo molecular imaging across multiple modalities.