De Sarno Franca, Ponsiglione Alfonso Maria, Grimaldi Anna Maria, Netti Paolo Antonio, Torino Enza
Center for Advanced Biomaterials for Health Care, CABHC, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, IIT@CRIB, Largo Barsanti e Matteucci 53, Naples, 80125, Italy; Department of Chemical, Materials & Industrial Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Piazzale Tecchio 80, Naples, 80125, Italy.
IRCCS SDN, Via E. Gianturco 113, Naples, 80143, Italy.
Carbohydr Polym. 2019 Oct 15;222:114991. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.114991. Epub 2019 Jun 14.
Nowadays, natural polysaccharides have given promising results as drug carriers. Among them, the hydrogels, thanks to their versatile properties, have been produced and engineered at the nano-scale in order to develop nanovectors for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Here, we investigate the contribution that a natural biopolymer, hyaluronic acid (HA), can give to the field of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). In addition, we study the relaxometric properties of crosslinked and non-crosslinked hydrogel networks and outline the impact of both HA concentration and crosslinker, Divinyl Sulfone (DVS), on the relaxivity of aqueous polymer solutions, even in the absence of Contrast Agents (CAs). Results show that proper HA concentration and the presence of the crosslinking agent can enhance the longitudinal relaxation time of the surrounding water, even in the absence of CAs. These findings could inspire the design of novel nanostructured hydrogels with enhanced relaxometric properties for MRI applications and not only.
如今，天然多糖作为药物载体已取得了令人期待的成果。其中，水凝胶凭借其多样的特性，已在纳米尺度上制备和设计，以开发用于诊断和治疗目的的纳米载体。在此，我们研究天然生物聚合物透明质酸（HA）对磁共振成像（MRI）领域的贡献。此外，我们研究了交联和非交联水凝胶网络的弛豫特性，并概述了HA浓度和交联剂二乙烯砜（DVS）对聚合物水溶液弛豫率的影响，即使在没有造影剂（CAs）的情况下也是如此。结果表明，即使在没有CAs的情况下，适当的HA浓度和交联剂的存在也可以提高周围水的纵向弛豫时间。这些发现不仅能启发设计具有增强弛豫特性的新型纳米结构水凝胶用于MRI应用。
