It has been shown that insoluble Gd chelates are suitable MRI contrast agents for conditional activation by intracellular lipases. The DTPA-based, insoluble, inactive contrast agent was internalized into dendritic cells by phagocytosis. Cleavage of long aliphatic side chains by intracellular lipase activity leads to the contrast agents solubility and hereby its activation depending on the enzym...

Nano materials is a new type of drug carriers with very promising application. In recent years, great progress was achieved in making drugs own the characteristics of targeted and controlled release via nanotechnologies. This paper addressed the capability of nano drugs on targeting to cells, penetrating through epicyte, controlled release and the security issues resulting from its using. We ga...

An approach to quantitatively image targeted-agent binding rate in vivo is demonstrated with dual-probe injection of both targeted and nontargeted fluorescent dyes. Images of a binding rate constant are created that reveal lower than expected uptake of epidermal growth factor in an orthotopic xenograft pancreas tumor (2.3 x 10(-5) s(-1)), as compared to the normal pancreas (3.4 x 10(-5) s(-1))....

The establishment of multiplex photoacoustic molecular imaging to characterize heterogeneous tissues requires the use of a tunable, thermally stable contrast agent targeted to specific cell types. We have developed a multiplex photoacoustic imaging technique which uses targeted silica-coated gold nanorods to distinguish cell inclusions in vitro. This paper describes the use of tunable targeted ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the feasibility of ultrasonographic (US) imaging of head and neck cancer with targeted contrast agents both in vitro and in vivo. We hypothesize that conjugation of microbubble contrast agent to tumor-specific antibodies may improve US detection of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). DESIGN Preclinical blinded assessment of anti-EGFR and anti-CD147 microbub...