Chelator-Free Copper-64-Incorporated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for PET/MR Imaging: Improved Radiocopper Stability and Cell Viability

Hye Min Jang; Myung Hwan Jung; Jae Sang Lee; Jun Sig Lee; In-Cheol Lim; Hyunsik Im; Sang Wook Kim; Sung-A Kang; Won-Je Cho; Jun Kue Park

doi:10.3390/nano12162791

Chelator-Free Copper-64-Incorporated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for PET/MR Imaging: Improved Radiocopper Stability and Cell Viability

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Aug 14;12(16):2791. doi: 10.3390/nano12162791.

Authors

Hye Min Jang^{1

2}, Myung Hwan Jung¹, Jae Sang Lee¹, Jun Sig Lee³, In-Cheol Lim³, Hyunsik Im², Sang Wook Kim⁴, Sung-A Kang⁵, Won-Je Cho¹, Jun Kue Park¹

Affiliations

¹ Korea Multi-Purpose Accelerator Complex, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 181 Mirae-ro, Gyeongju 38180, Korea.
² Division of Physics and Semiconductor Science, Dongguk University, Seoul 04620, Korea.
³ Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daedeok-daero 989, Daejeon 34057, Korea.
⁴ Department of Advanced Materials Chemistry, Dongguk University, Gyeongju 38066, Korea.
⁵ Advanced Bio Convergence, Pohang Technopark, Pohang 37668, Korea.

Abstract

We have developed chelator-free copper-64-incorporated iron oxide (IO) nanoparticle (NPs) which have both magnetic and radioactive properties being applied to positron emission tomography (PET)-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We have found that the IO nanoparticles composed of radioactive isotope ⁶⁴Cu may act as a contrast agent being a diagnostic tool for PET as well as a good T₂ MRI nanoprobe due to their good r₂/r₁ ratio. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the ⁶⁴Cu incorporation at the core of core-shell-structured IO NPs exhibits a good in vivo stability, giving us an insightful strategy for the design of a contrast agent for the PET-MRI system.

Keywords: PET-MRI; contrast agents; magnetic relaxivity; multimodal imaging; nanoparticles; silica core-shell; superparamagnetic nanoparticles.

Grants and funding

NRF-2018M2A2B3A01071930/National Research Foundation of Korea