The Formation of a New Gadolinium Dendrimer and its Potential Use as an MRI Contrast Agent

The Formation of a New Gadolinium Dendrimer and its Potential Use as an MRI Contrast Agent

The search for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent that enhances the images of the body’s bloodstream, tissues, or organs is currently continued. There are several known gadolinium compounds that are used as MRI agents. The use of dendrimers as an MRI contrast agent is being investigated, but the recent focus on the applications of dendrimers allows much of the developments of research to be fairly new. This research project will involve creating a new gadolinium compound and studying the possibility of using it as an MRI contrast agent. In this research project, several compounds have been synthesized. This includes the Gd(acac)3 where acac = acetylacetonate, a porphyrin (5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4’-chlorocarbonylphenyl)porphine), and compounds which combined a generation two (G2) dendrimer and the porphyrin (under nitrogen and another exposed to the air). These compounds are currently being analyzed through IR spectroscopy. They will be analyzed by elemental analysis (EA) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Further study will be conducted for the reactions of the gadolinium to the dendrimer and the porphyrin compound. Additionally, the gadolinium compound will also be reacted directly to the G2 dendrimer and the compound will be analyzed.