<p>MRI can benefit from an increase in the sensitivity of contrast agents. The CEST MRI technique in particular suffers from very poor sensitivity when using diamagnetic contrast agents. Polymerized CEST MRI contrast agents could increase the sensitivity per macromolecule over monomer contrast agents. The increase in sensitivity is related to the increase in number of contrast agents per polymer. A contrast agent with increased sensitivity can be used to image on the molecular level in vivo, where the concentration of targets is very low. A polymerized diaCEST contrast agent was synthesized by coupling a salicylic acid analogue to a poly (acrylic acid) backbone. The CEST effect of the coupled analogue was compared to its uncoupled form for different concentrations and pH values. A RL-QUEST method was used to calculate the exchange rate of the analogue for different pH values before and after coupling. The polymerized diaCEST agent was attempted to be loaded into DOPC and bis-SorbPC liposomes, and was also attempted to be targeted to folate receptors in a KB cell culture. These studies establish the foundation for translation of polymerized diaCEST contrast agents to additional in vitro and in vivo investigations. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:1599107 |
| Date | 31 October 2015 |
| Creators | Bontrager, Jordan G. |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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