TY - JOUR A2 - Ferro-Flores, Guillermina AU - Soikkeli, Maiju AU - Kettunen, Mikko I. AU - Nivajärvi, Riikka AU - Olsson, Venla AU - Rönkkö, Seppo AU - Laakkonen, Johanna P. AU - Lehto, Vesa-Pekka AU - Kavakka, Jari AU - Heikkinen, Sami PY - 2019 DA - 2019/12/24 TI - Assessment of the Relaxation-Enhancing Properties of a Nitroxide-Based Contrast Agent TEEPO-Glc with In Vivo Magnetic Resonance Imaging SP - 5629597 VL - 2019 AB - Magnetic resonance imaging examinations are frequently carried out using contrast agents to improve the image quality. Practically all clinically used contrast agents are based on paramagnetic metals and lack in selectivity and specificity. A group of stable organic radicals, nitroxides, has raised interest as new metal-free contrast agents for MRI. Their structures can easily be modified to incorporate different functionalities. In the present study, a stable nitroxide TEEPO (2,2,6,6-tetraethylpiperidin-1-oxyl) was linked to a glucose moiety (Glc) to construct a water-soluble, potentially tumor-targeting compound with contrast-enhancing ability. The ability was assessed with in vivo MRI experiments. The constructed TEEPO-Glc agent proved to shorten the T1 relaxation time in tumor, while the T1 time in healthy brain tissue remained the same. The results indicate the potential of TEEPO-Glc as a valuable addition to the growing field of metal-free contrast enhancement in MRI-based diagnostics. SN - 1555-4309 UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5629597 DO - 10.1155/2019/5629597 JF - Contrast Media & Molecular Imaging PB - Hindawi KW - ER -