Pyridine-based Lanthanide Complexes: Towards Bimodal Agents Operating As Near Infrared Luminescent And Mri Reporters

摘要

We report two prototype Ln~(3+) complexes that address requirements for both MRI and luminescence imaging and we demonstrate that the presence of two H_2O molecules bound to the Ln~(3+), beneficial for MRI applications of the Gd~(3+) analogue, is not a major limitation for the development of NIR luminescent agents.rnAmong the state-of-the-art bioimaging modalities, some are characterized by high resolution but low sensitivity (magnetic resonance imaging, MRI), others by high sensitivity but low resolution (optical imaging). Luminescent/MRI bimodal imaging offers the advantage of coupling the high sensitivity of luminescence with the high resolution of MRI. Lanthanide complexes are well suited for the design of bimodal imaging probes: they combine optimized magnetic and optical properties, while the similar chemical reactivities allow facile substitution of one Ln~(3+) by another. Gd~(3+) complexes are efficient MRI contrast agents.