抄録
The advent of functional contrast agents and nanoparticle drug delivery systems (nano-DDSs) is opening new pathways to understanding pathophysiology using MRI. Nano-carriers for DDSs can contain multiple functional elements, such as therapeutic drugs, MRI contrast agents, fluorescent or luminescent dyes, and radioisotopes, without serious changes to the particle kinetics/dynamics. The development of such multifunctional nano-DDSs and imaging has accordingly become a subject of widespread research. Various materials have also been reported as nano-DDS carriers, including micelles, liposomes, emulsions, dendrimers, quantum dots (QDs) and carbon materials such as fullerenes, with each material providing a different set of characteristics as a nano- DDS carrier. I will summarize our recent research into nano-DDS-based contrast agents for MRI.
