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2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Protein Nanocages-Conjugated Magnetic Resonance Contrast Agents Displaying High Relaxivity and Tumor Selectivity.

Research Project

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Project/Area Number 24300172
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)

Allocation TypePartial Multi-year Fund
Section一般
Research Field Biomedical engineering/Biological material science
Research InstitutionKyushu University

Principal Investigator

MURATA Masaharu  九州大学, 学内共同利用施設等, 准教授 (30304744)

Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha) HASHIZUME Makoto  九州大学, 大学院医学研究院, 教授 (90198664)
KAWANO Takahito  九州大学, 先端融合医療レドックスナビ研究拠点, 特任助教 (90526831)
HAMANO Nobuhito  九州大学, 先端医療イノベーションセンター研究拠点, 特任助教 (80708397)
Project Period (FY) 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
Keywords分子イメージング / ナノ材料 / MRI
Outline of Final Research Achievements

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 pancreatic 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.

Free Research Field

医工学 ナノ材料

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Published: 2016-06-03  

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