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Balaji
Sitharaman, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical
Engineering at Stony
Brook University,
and a team of researchers developed a new, highly efficacious, potentially
safer, and more cost-effective nanoparticle-based MRI (magnetic resonance
imaging) contrast agent for improved disease diagnosis and detection. The most
recent findings are discussed in detail in PLoS
ONE.
The MRI, the
technology for which was invented at Stony
Brook University
by Professor Paul Lauterbur, is one of the most powerful and central techniques
in diagnostic medicine and biomedical research used primarily to render
anatomical details for improved diagnosis of many pathologies and diseases.
Currently, most MRI procedures use gadolinium-based contrast agents to improve
the visibility and definition of disease detection. However, recent studies
have shown harmful side effects, such as nephrogenic systemic fibrosis,
stemming from the use of this contrast agent in some patients, forcing the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) to place restrictions on the clinical use of
gadolinium. Further, most MRI contrast agents are not suitable for
extended-residence-intravascular (blood pool), or tissue (organ)-specific
imaging, and do not allow molecular imaging.
To address the
need for an MRI contrast agent that demonstrates greater effectiveness and
lower toxicity, Sitharaman developed a novel high-performance graphene-based
contrast agent that may replace the gadolinium-based agent which is widely used
by physicians today. “A graphene-based contrast agent can allow the same
clinical MRI performance at substantially lower dosages,” said Sitharaman. The
project is a Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Translational Research Award winner
and the recipient of a two-year translational grant to study preclinical safety
and efficacy.
“The technology
will lower health care costs by reducing the cost per dose as well as the number
of doses required,” noted Sitharaman. “Further, since this new MRI contrast
agent will substantially improve disease detection by increasing sensitivity
and diagnostic confidence, it will enable earlier treatment for many diseases,
which is less expensive, and of course more effective for diseases such as
cancer.”
The new graphene-based imaging contrast agent is also the focus of Sitharaman’s
startup company, Theragnostic Technologies Inc., which was incorporated in
early 2012.
Source: Stony Brook University
