Magnetic particle imaging for radiation-free, sensitive and high-contrast vascular imaging and cell tracking

Abstract

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is an emerging ionizing radiation-free biomedical tracer imaging technique that directly images the intense magnetization of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIOs). MPI offers ideal image contrast because MPI shows zero signal from background tissues. Moreover, there is zero attenuation of the signal with depth in tissue, allowing for imaging deep inside the body quantitatively at any location. Recent work has demonstrated the potential of MPI for robust, sensitive vascular imaging and cell tracking with high contrast and dose-limited sensitivity comparable to nuclear medicine. To foster future applications in MPI, this new biomedical imaging field is welcoming researchers with expertise in imaging physics, magnetic nanoparticle synthesis and functionalization, nanoscale physics, and small animal imaging applications.

Current Progress and Perspective: Clinical Imaging of Islet Transplantation

“…MPI's linear quantitation arises from the linear signal change with nanoparticle concentration, which occurs independent of tissue depth. We anticipate that MPI will be used in addition to MRI (i.e., MPI does not replace MRI, it simply augments MRI as an extra layer of information, like PET/MRI) and is very promising for clinical applications in the future [54,55].…”

Iron oxide nanoparticles as multimodal imaging tools

“…Several applications of IONP in MPI have been suggested such as: Cell concentration measurement, i.e. it is possible to obtain a relation between the MPI signal and the cellular concentration, 37 with a high resolution, down to $250 cells and 7.8 ng of Fe. It however necessitates knowing on the one hand the quantity of IONP internalized in each cell and on the other hand how IONP internalization affects MPI signal.…”

Advances in the Application of Magnetic Nanoparticles for Sensing

“…One of the major shifts in the field has been the use of MNPs beyond just collecting and separating the analyte, although there have been some significant advances in separation as well, to being crucial in generating the signal. This has resulted in some amazing sensor performance in areas of ultralow detection of rare cells, [7,8] nucleic acids, [9] proteins [10] and small molecules combined with electrochemical, [11,12] optical [13] and magnetic [14,15] transduction technologies.…”