Published in

Public Library of Science, PLoS ONE, 6(8), p. e65346, 2013

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0065346

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Design of a Modular Protein-Based MRI Contrast Agent for Targeted Application

Journal article published in 2013 by Daniel Grum, Stefan Franke, Oliver Kraff, Dominik Heider, Alexander Schramm, Daniel Hoffmann ORCID, Peter Bayer ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Upload
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Upload
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Upload
Policy details
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers a non-radioactive alternative for the non-invasive detection of tumours. Low molecular weight MRI contrast agents currently in clinical use suffer either from a lack of specificity for tumour tissue or from low relaxivity and thus low contrast amplification. In this study, we present the newly designed two domain fusion protein Zarvin, which is able to bind to therapeutic IgG antibodies suitable for targeting, while facilitating contrast enhancement through high affinity binding sites for Gd(3+). We show that the Zarvin fold is stable under serum conditions, specifically targets a cancer cell-line when bound to the Cetuximab IgG, and allows for imaging with high relaxivity, a property that would be advantageous for the detection of small tumours and metastases at 1.5 or 3 T.