Synthesis and study on magnetic resonance imaging performance of Gd(III)-DTPA-bisfuran-2-carbohydrazide as a potential MRI contrast agent

ABSTRACT

One novel ligand, diethylenetriamine-N, N“-bi(acetyl-furan-2-carbohydrazide)-N, N′, N”-triacetic acid (H₃L), has been synthesized in high yield by the reaction of bicyclic anhydride of diethylenetraiaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) with furan-2-carbohydrazide. It has three carboxylic groups, and the corresponding nonion complex of Gd(III)-L holding promise of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was obtained by treating these ligand with Gd₂O₃ in water. The efficacy of the contrast agent was assessed by measuring the longitudinal relaxivity (r₁) and T₁ weighted magnetic resonance imaging in vitro. The r₁ of Gd(III)-DTPA-bisfuran-2-carbohydrazide was up to 5.92 mM⁻¹·s⁻¹, which was 1.27 times higher than that of the analogous MRI contrast agent Gd(III)-DTPA(4.65 mM⁻¹·s⁻¹) in clinical application. T₁ weighted magnetic resonance imaging in vitro showed that proton signal intensity increased with Gd(III) complex concentration and the imaging effect of Gd(III)-DTPA-bisfuran-2-carbohydrazide was superior to that of Gd(III)-DTPA in the same condition. These results showed that the complex might be considered as a potential MRI contrast agent.

KEYWORDS:

• Furan
• DTPA derivative
• paramagnetic metal complex
• MRI contrast agent
• relaxivity

Funding

This project was supported by Shandong Province Science and Technology Development Plan (No. 2013GZX20109) and Shandong Province Natural Science Foundation (No. ZR2014BM030).