MRI-visible nanoparticles from hydrophobic gadolinium poly(ε-caprolactone) conjugates

Barbara Porsio (1) , Laurent Lemaire (2) , Sarah El Habnouni (1) , Vincent Darcos (1) , Florence Franconi (3) , Xavier Garric (1) , Jean Coudane (1) , Benjamin Nottelet (1)

1 IBMM - Institut des Biomolécules Max Mousseron [Pôle Chimie Balard]
2 MINT - Micro et Nanomédecines Biomimétiques
3 CHU Angers - Centre Hospitalier Universitaire d'Angers

In this work we report on the synthesis of two hydrophobic and degradable gadolinium poly(ε-caprolactone) conjugates and their use for the preparation of MRI-visible nanoparticles intended for diagnosis applications. Advantage has been taken from functional poly(ε-caprolactone)s (PCL) bearing propargyl (PCL-yne) or amine groups (P(CL-co-NH2VL)) to yield conjugates by following two strategies. In a first approach, an azido-chelate of gadolinium (Gd(III)) has been conjugated by CuAAC to PCL-yne to yield a polymeric chelate containing 2.6 wt% of Gd(III). In a second approach, a dianhydride Gd(III)-ligand was reacted with P(CL-co-NH2VL) to yield, after complexation with Gd(III) salts, a polymeric chelate containing 15.4 wt% of Gd(III). The polymers biocompatibility was assessed against L929 fibroblasts. In a second part, advantage was taken from the PCLs conjugates hydrophobicity to easily prepare by nanoprecipitation nanoparticles with diameters ranging from 120 to 170 nm. The nanoparticles MRI-visibility was then evaluated and confirmed under the spin-echo and the clinically relevant gradient-echo MRI sequences.

Mots clés: Nanoparticles; MRI; Polyester

Domaines: Polymères; Imagerie

Barbara Porsio, Laurent Lemaire, Sarah El Habnouni, Vincent Darcos, Florence Franconi, et al.. MRI-visible nanoparticles from hydrophobic gadolinium poly(ε-caprolactone) conjugates. Polymer, 2015, 56, pp.135-140. ⟨10.1016/j.polymer.2014.11.031⟩. ⟨hal-01369246⟩