I-Corps: Engineering Polymeric Nanoparticles as Contrast Agents

这个i-Corps项目的广泛影响/商业潜力在医学成像方面带来了几个好处。这些措施包括诊断图像质量和对比度的大幅提高、软组织图像分辨率的增强、无电离辐射的图像方法以及患者不适感的大幅减少。这种新的医学成像技术将通过减少住院、手术和看医生的次数来潜在地降低临床成本。据设想，这项技术将有可能占据成像造影剂市场的很大一部分，并最终不仅用于治疗与癌症相关的疾病，而且还用于治疗其他疾病，如心血管、胃肠道、肌肉骨骼、神经和肾脏疾病。这个I-Corps项目旨在通过开发与临床扫描仪一起使用的靶向造影剂来提高诊断图像质量，从而改善癌症早期诊断。使用目前的扫描方法通常无法发现小肿瘤，而且癌症往往在疾病最容易治疗的早期阶段无法诊断出来。我们开发的工程化造影剂是基于聚合物的纳米颗粒，其外部和内部的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心，内衬是半导体聚合物，当与多光谱光声断层扫描仪一起使用时，会发出强烈的成像信号。这种成像方式被称为光声学，是一种非侵入性成像方法，提供高空间分辨率和高穿透深度，从而产生非常高质量的图像。MSOT/造影剂组合技术使医生能够实时获得患者受影响器官的解剖、生理和功能信息。

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.