Asymmetrically Coordinated Dual-Atom Manganese Contrast Agents Enabling High-Efficiency T1 Enhanced MRI for Precise...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Biomedical Imaging

Background:

• Achieving precise control over paramagnetic coordination environments for MRI contrast agents is difficult due to competing requirements for relaxivity and water exchange.
• Conventional systems struggle to meet the sub-angstrom precision needed for optimal relaxivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel dual-atom manganese-based platform for enhanced MRI properties.
• To investigate the effects of dual-atom coordination engineering on relaxivity and biological interactions.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of a novel dual-atom manganese-based platform (Mn-BN) with asymmetric Mn2-N3O3 geometry.
• Advanced characterization techniques and theoretical calculations to understand the material's properties.
• Evaluation of MRI relaxivity and in vivo imaging performance for tumor visualization and liver metastases detection.

Main Results:

• The Mn-BN platform achieved significantly high T1 relaxivity (36.27 mM-1s-1 at 3.0 T), approximately 10-fold higher than clinical agents.
• Cooperative electronic effects from adjacent Mn centers enhanced water exchange and dipole-dipole interactions.
• Demonstrated accurate tumor boundary visualization and sensitive detection of liver metastases due to preferential hepatocyte uptake.

Conclusions:

• Dual-atom coordination engineering is an effective strategy for enhancing MRI contrast agent properties.
• The developed Mn-BN material offers improved relaxivity, targeted biological interactions, and extended imaging windows.
• This work opens new avenues for developing advanced MRI contrast agents with tailored functionalities.