| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,160,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥960,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Contrast agents with greater specificity and sensitivity are required to improve the diagnosis of cancers using MRI. In this study, small heat shock protein 16.5 (Hsp16.5)-based nanocages conjugated with gadolinium(III)-chelated MRI contrast agents were developed for the diagnosis of cancer. Nanocages with one to four hydrophobic domains were designed to investigate whether template size influences relaxivity. MRI data showed that larger nanocages have higher T1 relaxivities than smaller nanocages as a result of 1) a reduction in molecular tumbling rates caused by an increase in nanocage size and 2) a robust cage structure resulting from the introduction of hydrophobic domains. The introduction of iRGD peptides that specifically target neuropilin-1 enabled the selective binding of nanocages to pancreatic cancer cells. Therefore, this iRGD- modified Hsp16.5 nanocage displays great potential as a highly specific and sensitive MRI contrast agent for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
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