Simultaneous Visualization of Anatomical Structure and Molecular Pathology Variation in Vascular Inflammation with Informationized Serum Albumin.

Abstract

Vascular inflammation is a common dangerous factor in the pathogenesis of many prevalent diseases, such as sepsis, thrombosis, myocardial infarction, cerebral encephalitis, and stroke. Herein, a serum albumin-based nanoprobe has been developed for diagnosing vascular inflammation. As a paradigm of serum albumin, BSA is dually informationized by the TAFe^III complex and HA molecules, known as BSA-TAFe^III@HA nanoprobes. Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) reveals that BSA-TAFe^III@HA nanoprobes can enhance the <i>T</i>₁ signal of vessels and achieve high-resolution 3D visualization of the anatomical morphology <i>in vivo</i>, with clear identification of microvessels. In an encephalitis model, nanoprobes can specifically visualize the cerebral inflamed sites <i>in vivo</i> through CD44 targeting. Further, in the thrombosis model, the vascular inflammation of the arterial thrombus in mice can be detected by simultaneously visualizing the anatomical information on vascular stenosis and pathological molecular information on CD44. Therefore, this study proposes an MRI strategy for diagnosing vascular inflammation in terms of both anatomical morphology and pathological molecular information in a timely and highly sensitive manner, which would not only facilitate insight into the biological mechanism of inflammation-related diseases but also be helpful in guiding precise anti-inflammatory treatment, thus avoiding adverse outcomes and poor prognosis.