Activities

Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) agents are a peculiar class of MRI probes that have unique properties in the scenario of MRI contrast agents, as the possibility to generate the contrast at will following the stimulation at a specific frequency that corresponds to the resonance of exchangeable protons of the agent.

This feature makes CEST agents particularly appealing especially for the development of concentration-independent responsive probes (e.g. for in vivo pH measurement).

In the presence of paramagnetic centers that affect the chemical shift of the exchangeable protons (e.g. Eu(III), Yb(III), Tm(III), Dy(III)), the frequency to be stimulated moves away from the bulk water protons, with some beneficial effects for the in vivo detection of the CEST contrast. In addition, when the paramagnetic system is loaded into a nanosystem (e.g. liposomes) or even a cell (e.g. RBCs) the contrast detection can be extremely sensitive, and also new potential applications in molecular imaging framework become accessible.  

Group

Daniela Delli Castelli, Associate Professor

Enzo Terreno, Full Professor

Walter Dastrù, Researcher

Giuseppe Ferrauto, Researcher 

Valeria Menchise, CNR Researcher

Martina Tripepi, PhD student