posted on 2024-02-01, 20:15authored byQuan Zou, Xi Chen, Bingjie Li, Ruijie Zhang, Jinbin Pan, Xuejun Zhang, Xuening Zhang, Shao-Kai Sun
Contrast-enhanced
magnetic resonance imaging (CE-MRI) of acute
kidney injury (AKI) is severely hindered by the poor targeting capacity
and potential toxicity of current contrast agents. Herein, we propose
one-step fabrication of a bovine serum albumin@polydopamine@Fe (BSA@PDA@Fe,
BPFe) nanoprobe with self-purification capacity for targeted CE-MRI
of AKI. BSA endows the BPFe nanoprobe with renal tubule-targeting
ability, and PDA is capable of completely inhibiting the intrinsic
metal-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are always involved
in Fe/Mn-based agents. The as-prepared nanoprobe owns a tiny size
of 2.7 nm, excellent solubility, good T1 MRI ability, superior biocompatibility, and powerful antioxidant
capacity. In vivo CE-MRI shows that the BPFe nanoprobe
can accumulate in the renal cortex due to the reabsorption effect
toward the serum albumin. In the AKI model, impaired renal reabsorption
function can be effortlessly detected via the diminishment of renal
cortical signal enhancement. More importantly, the administration
of the BPFe nanoprobe would not aggravate renal damage of AKI due
to the outstanding self-purification capacity. Besides, the BPFe nanoprobe
is employed for CE-MR angiography to visualize fine vessel structures.
This work provides an MRI contrast agent with good biosafety and targeting
ability for CE-MRI of kidney diseases.