Safe and Efficient Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Acute Myocardial Infarction with Gadolinium-Doped Carbon Dots

Abstract

Aim: The magneto-fluorescent gadolinium-doped carbon dots (Gd-CDs) were developed as a cardiac MR imaging contrast agent to detect the infarcted myocardium on a myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) mice model. Materials & methods: The chemophysical features, cardiac MR imaging effect, biodistribution and biocompatibility of Gd-CDs were studied. Results: The ultrasmall size and good aqueous dispersibility endows Gd-CDs with high longitudinal relaxivity, intense fluorescence, excellent physiological stability and superior biocompatibility. More importantly, Gd-CDs preferentially target the infarcts as determined by the confocal microscopy and MR imaging on the I/R mice at the acute stage of myocardial infarction. Conclusion: Gd-CDs manifest great potential for development as an MR imaging contrast agent to facilitate accurate visualization and image-guided therapy of acute myocardial infarction.

Graphical abstract

Keywords::

• carbon dots
• contrast agent
• gadolinium
• MR imaging
• myocardial infarction

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/10.2217/nnm-2020-0160

Author contributions

Y Li, B Li, X Wang, Y Meng and L Bai contributed to the execution of the experiment, data analysis and drafted the work. Y Zheng contributed to the design of the experiments, data analysis and revision of the manuscript. All the authors made the final approval of the version to be published, and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by the Scientific Research Common Program of Beijing Municipal Commission of Education (KM202010025028), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (7162027), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (81670380). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

All animal experimentation was approved by the Capital Medical University Animal Care and Use Committee and in accordance with “the European Communities Council Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments”.

Acknowledgments

The authors greatly acknowledge the technical support from Z Wang and J Lei for the MRI experiments, and Q Xu for the echocardiography examination.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Scientific Research Common Program of Beijing Municipal Commission of Education (KM202010025028), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (7162027), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (81670380). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.