Synthesis and characterization of starch based pH-responsive nanoparticles for controlled drug delivery are described. Polymethacrylic acid grafted starch (PMAA-g-St) nanoparticles with various molar ratio of starch to MAA were synthesized by a new one-pot method that enabled simultaneous grafting of PMAA and nanoparticle formation in an aqueous medium. NMR data showed that polysorbate 80 was polymerized into the graft polymer. Nanoparticles were relatively spherical with narrow size distribution and porous surface morphology and exhibited pH-dependent swelling in physiological pH range. The particle size and magnitude of volume phase transition were dependent on PMAA content and formulation parameters such as surfactant levels, cross-linker amount, and total monomer concentration. The results showed that the new pH-responsive nanoparticles possessed useful properties for controlled drug delivery.

The present disclosure, among other things, provides a composition including a nanoscale core; a plurality of capping agent entities associated on the core; an outer encapsulant layer; and a plurality of dopant entities distributed at locations selected from the group consisting of: on or within the nanoscale core, on or between capping agent entities, on or within the encapsulating layer, and combinations thereof. Provided technologies can achieve unprecedented levels of dopant entity density and/or surface localization, which, for a SE(R)RS-active agent dopant, results in dramatically improved signal intensity and/or imaging sensitivity.

Described herein is a reporter material platform that can be used to directly monitor the drug response in real-time. The reporter material can include an activator element which undergoes a chemical change in response to an immunonological response to a drug, and the chemical change can be detected using a reporter element. The reporter material can include a drug and a reporter element that are physically constrained in a close proximity. The reporter element produces a signal only when the drug induces a direct or indirect physiological change in the tumor or surrounding tissue. The reporter material platform can self-assemble via supramolecular interactions. This reporter material platform can be used to directly monitor the drug response in real-time.

Disclosed are methods, compositions, reagents, systems, and kits to prepare nitroxide-functionalized brush-arm star polymer organic radical contrast agent (BASP-ORCA) as well as compositions and uses thereof. Various embodiments show that BASP-ORCA display unprecedented per-nitroxide and per-molecule transverse relaxivities for organic radical contrast agents, exceptional stability, high water solubility, low in vitro and in vivo toxicity, and long blood compartment half-life. These materials have the potential to be adopted for tumor imaging using clinical high-field .sup.1H MRI techniques.

The invention relates to a novel use of ultrafine nanoparticles as an imaging agent in a method for diagnosing a renal disorder. The invention also relates to the use of ultrafine nanoparticles as an imaging agent in methods for monitoring the therapeutic efficacy of a renal disorder treatment.

A composition for imaging a cell includes a first imaging probe and a second imaging probe that include respectively a first reporter moiety and a second reporter moiety. The first reporter moiety and the second reporter moiety form a signaling complex that produces a detectable signal when the first imaging probe and second imaging probe complex with first and second biomarkers of the cell.

The invention relates to novel biocompatible hybrid nanoparticles of very small size, useful in particular for diagnostics and/or therapy.

The purpose of the invention is to offer novel nanoparticles which are useful in particular as contrast agents in imaging (e.g. MRI) and/or in other diagnostic techniques and/or as therapeutic agents, which give better performance than the known nanoparticles of the same type and which combine both a small size (for example less than 20 nm) and a high loading with metals (e.g. rare earths), in particular so as to have, in imaging (e.g. MRI), strong intensification and a correct response (increased relaxivity) at high frequencies.

Thus, the nanoparticles according to the invention, with diameter d.sub.1 between 1 and 20 nm, each comprise a polyorganosiloxane (POS) matrix including gadolinium cations optionally associated with doping cations; a chelating graft C.sup.1 DTPABA (diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid bisanhydride) bound to the POS matrix by an SiC covalent bond, and present in sufficient quantity to be able to complex all the gadolinium cations; and optionally another functionalizing graft Gf* bound to the POS matrix by an SiC covalent bond (where Gf* can be derived from a hydrophilic compound (PEG); from a compound having an active ingredient PA1; from a targeting compound; from a luminescent compound (fluorescein).

The method for the production of these nanoparticles and the applications thereof in imaging and in therapy also form part of the invention.

The present invention relates to a composition for use as a contrast agent in medical imaging. The composition comprises a metal ion containing compound comprises at least one metal ion adapted to bind with one or more metal ion chelating agents; wherein said one or more metal ion chelating agents comprise at least one first chelating agent adapted to target a region of interest being imaged, and at least one second chelating agent having at least one functional group adapted to dissociate in an aqueous medium to thereby allow or enhance contrast of the region of interest under the medical imaging. The present invention further relates to a diagnostic agent for use in amyloid (A) protein detection under magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) comprising the above described composition; and a method of preparing thereof.

An amyloidogenic peptide biospecific agent comprises a nanoparticle which is visible under near infrared (NIR) and/or using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and/or Computed Tomography (CT). The biospecific agent further comprises at least one antibody or antigen binding fragment thereof, which is immunospecific for a transferrin receptor and an amyloidogenic peptide.

The present invention relates to paramagnetic solid lipid nanoparticles (pSLNs) comprising an amphiphilic paramagnetic metal chelating moiety selected from: a diazepine derivative of Formula I and a tetraazocyclododecane derivative of Formula (II): being said chelating moiety complexed to a paramagnetic metal ion selected from the group consisting of: Gd(III), Mn(II), Cr(III), Cu(II), Fe(III), Pr(III), Nd(III), Sm(III), Tb(III), Yb(III), Dy(III), Ho(III) and Er(III), or salts thereof. The invention further relates to the process for preparation of said solid lipid nanoparticles comprising amphiphilic complexes of paramagnetic metals (pSLNs) and to the use of pSLNs as MRI contrast agents in the diagnostic field.