Abstract
In recent several years, the drug targeting methodology has been actively applied to MRI contrast agents, particularly to “selective MRI contrast agents” that can only enhance image contrasts at target sites. This situation is one part of reflection of fusion between DDS and molecular imaging fields. This review describes how and for what purpose drug targeting can be applied to developments of novel MRI contrast agents. This review is composed of the following contents;concept of selective MRI contrast agents, methodological differences between the targetings of drugs and contrast agents, mechanisms of selective contrasts, and the authors' study of polymeric micelle MRI contrast agents.
