Early detection and staging of chronic liver diseases with a protein MRI contrast agent.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31664017.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-11984-2 and PMC identifier 6820552.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Early diagnosis and noninvasive detection of liver fibrosis and its heterogeneity remain as major unmet medical needs for stopping further disease progression toward severe clinical consequences. Here we report a collagen type I targeting protein-based contrast agent (ProCA32.collagen1) with strong collagen I affinity. ProCA32.collagen1 possesses high relaxivities per particle (r<sub>1</sub> and r<sub>2</sub>) at both 1.4 and 7.0 T, which enables the robust detection of early-stage (Ishak stage 3 of 6) liver fibrosis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (Ishak stage 1 of 6 or 1 A Mild) in animal models via dual contrast modes. ProCA32.collagen1 also demonstrates vasculature changes associated with intrahepatic angiogenesis and portal hypertension during late-stage fibrosis, and heterogeneity via serial molecular imaging. ProCA32.collagen1 mitigates metal toxicity due to lower dosage and strong resistance to transmetallation and unprecedented metal selectivity for Gd<sup>3+</sup> over physiological metal ions with strong translational potential in facilitating effective treatment to halt further chronic liver disease progression.
Medical subject headings
- Contrast Media
- Gadolinium
- Hypertension, Portal
- Liver
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging