FluoroDendriNostic · Combined fluorinated polymer and poly-L-lysine dendrimer as new potential contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging 19F
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2016-09-01 → 2018-08-31
- EU contribution
- €183,455
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Combined fluorinated polymer and poly-L-lysine dendrimer as new potential contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging 19F
Early diagnosis of diseases, including tumors, is the ultimate goal of biomedical imaging. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a technique for non-destructive and non-invasive diagnosis of a number of diseases including cancer. However, early detection of such diseases requires techniques with high sensitivity, while maintaining high specificities for cancerous or diseased cells. The use of contrast agents improves the image quality and hence leads to a significant improvement in image analysis which in turns leads to more reliable/sensitive diagnosis. Recently, contrast agents bearing 19F have been introduced as an attractive alternative to purely hydrogenated compounds, because of their unique spectroscopic signature which leads to a high signal to noise ratio. However promising these new fluorinated compounds are, their tendency to aggregate and the low mobility of fluorinated chains in physiological media have known to limit the sensitivity of 19F MRI for clinical applications. Recently, hyperbranched fluoropolymers demonstrate to be a promising platform for in vivo imaging by 19F magnetic resonance. There is significant interest in such hyperbranched polymers for use in nanomedicine applications. This project aimed to design, synthesize and characterize a series of novel fluorinated structures and examine their behavior in aqueous media and to assess 19F MRI capability of these new structure. Fluoropolymers, in this project, are polymers which are containing 19F that are soluble in water and can be readily functionalized to enable targeting. This project represented a key objective in the advancement of MRI research. This program of work had also developed a new and exciting collaboration between the host, Benoit Couturaud and collaborator (A/Prof Kristofer Thurecht) and had place this new team at the leading edge of this important field.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Early diagnosis of diseases, including tumors, is the ultimate goal of biomedical imaging. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a technique for non-destructive and non-invasive diagnosis of a number of diseases including cancer. Recently, contrast agents bearing 19F have been introduced as an attractive alternative to purely hydrogenated compounds, because of their high signal to noise ratio as result of their unique spectroscopic signature. This project aims to design, synthesize and characterize a series of novel fluorinated amphiphilic structures based on a fluoropolymer and a dendrimer (so called DendriGrafts, DGLs) based on poly-L-lysine. DGLs are a new type of arborescent biosynthetic polymer of regular and controlled structure. They have been shown to be biocompatible and non-immunogenic. It proposed that these DGLs to have potential as a powerful platform for the functionalization of hydrophobic polymers and to afford fluoropolymers for applications in 19F MRI. Combining DGLs and fluoropolymers in a good solvent for one of the blocks, is proposed to enable self-assembly of the amphiphiles into a variety of morphologies and molecular aggregates (including micelles, vesicles or cylinders). Increasing attention has been given to this type of supramolecular organization and to their potential use in applications such as coatings, drug delivery systems, nanoparticles or nanoreactors. Thus, this project will not only study the fundamental phenomena of self-organization of these novel copolymers but will also result in new materials suitable for application as novel agents in 19F MRI. Combining the complementary expertise from the Experienced Researcher in dendritic polymers, the host team in polymerization techniques and polymer self-assembly, a series of novel copolymer systems will be originally created in this project and finally studied by in vitro and in vivo.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM · BirminghamCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
- UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK · COVENTRYUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union