I-Corps: Engineering Polymeric Nanoparticles as Contrast Agents

I-Corps：工程聚合物纳米颗粒作为造影剂

• 批准号: 1756062
• 负责人: Carolina Salvador Morales
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: George Mason University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-11-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1756062&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Engineering; Polymeric; Nanoparticles; Contrast

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project brings several benefits in medical imaging. These include a substantial improvement in diagnostic image quality and contrast, enhanced soft tissue image resolution, an image method free from ionizing radiation, and substantial reduction in patient discomfort. This new medical imaging technology will potentially reduce clinical costs by decreasing the number of hospitalizations, surgeries and physician visits. It is envisioned that the technology will potentially capture a significant part of the imaging contrast agent market and eventually be used to treat not only cancer-related diseases but also other diseases such as cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, neurological, and nephrological disorders.This I-Corps project aims to improve early cancer diagnosis by developing targeted contrast agents for use with a clinical scanner to improve diagnostic image quality. Small tumors cannot typically be detected using current scanning methods and cancers are often not diagnosed during this early stage when the disease can most susceptible to treatment. The engineered contrast agents we have developed are polymer-based nanoparticles whose external and internal chemistry and morphology can be tailored according to the patient's need. The nanoparticles have a hollow core with an inner lining of a semiconducting polymer that emits a strong imaging signal when used with a multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) scanner. This imaging modality, known as photoacoustics, is a non-invasive imaging method that provides high spatial resolution and high penetration depth, resulting in a very high-quality image. The combined MSOT/contrast agent technology enables physicians to get real-time anatomical, physiological and functional information of the patient's affected organ.

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力为医学成像带来了几个好处。 这些包括诊断图像质量和对比度的显著改善、增强的软组织图像分辨率、无电离辐射的图像方法以及患者不适的显著减少。 这种新的医学成像技术将通过减少住院、手术和医生就诊的数量来降低临床成本。 据设想，该技术将潜在地占据成像造影剂市场的重要部分，并最终不仅用于治疗癌症相关疾病，而且用于治疗其他疾病，如心血管、胃肠道、肌肉骨骼、神经、以及肾脏疾病这我... Corps项目旨在通过开发与临床扫描仪配合使用的靶向造影剂来改善诊断图像，质量.使用当前的扫描方法通常无法检测到小肿瘤，并且癌症通常在疾病最容易治疗的早期阶段无法诊断。我们开发的工程造影剂是基于聚合物的纳米颗粒，其外部和内部化学和形态可以根据患者的需要进行定制。 这种纳米粒子有一个中空的核，内层是半导体聚合物，当与多光谱光声层析成像（MSOT）扫描仪一起使用时，它会发出强烈的成像信号。这种成像方式称为光声，是一种非侵入性成像方法，可提供高空间分辨率和高穿透深度，从而获得非常高质量的图像。结合MSOT/造影剂技术使医生能够获得患者受影响器官的实时解剖，生理和功能信息。