Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs)Cardiovascular disease (CVD) refers to the class of diseases that involve the heart and/or the blood vessels, especially the veins and arteries leading to and from the heart. Atherosclerosis is a common form of CVD, and it may lead to serious health problems in different organs. Coronary artery disease, also called coronary heart disease, is a condition in which plaque builds up inside the coronary arteries, which supply the heart muscle with oxygen-rich blood. Cardiac arrest is the sudden, abrupt loss of heart function. Heart failure is a common condition that usually develops slowly as the heart muscle weakens and must work harder to keep blood flowing through the body. Thrombus formation can be an eventual consequence of long-term plaque buildup in a blood vessel to which the body responds by covering the plaque with a thin layer or fibrous cap.
Carbon nanotubes as photoacoustic molecular imaging agents in living miceA brain tumor molecular imaging strategy using a new triple-modality MRI-photoacoustic-Raman nanoparticleNoninvasive molecular imaging of small living subjects using Raman spectroscopyShay Keren, Cristina Zavaleta, Zhen Cheng et al.|Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|2008 Molecular imaging of living subjects continues to rapidly evolve with bioluminescence and fluorescence strategies, in particular being frequently used for small-animal models. This article presents noninvasive deep-tissue molecular images in a living subject with the use of Raman spectroscopy. We describe a strategy for small-animal optical imaging based on Raman spectroscopy and Raman nanoparticles. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering nanoparticles and single-wall carbon nanotubes were used to demonstrate whole-body Raman imaging, nanoparticle pharmacokinetics, multiplexing, and in vivo tumor targeting, using an imaging system adapted for small-animal Raman imaging. The imaging modality reported here holds significant potential as a strategy for biomedical imaging of living subjects.
Ultrahigh Sensitivity Carbon Nanotube Agents for Photoacoustic Molecular Imaging in Living MicePhotoacoustic imaging is an emerging modality that overcomes to a great extent the resolution and depth limitations of optical imaging while maintaining relatively high-contrast. However, since many diseases will not manifest an endogenous photoacoustic contrast, it is essential to develop exogenous photoacoustic contrast agents that can target diseased tissue(s). Here we present a novel photoacoustic contrast agent, Indocyanine Green dye-enhanced single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT-ICG). We conjugated this contrast agent with cyclic Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) peptides to molecularly target the alpha(v)beta(3) integrins, which are associated with tumor angiogenesis. Intravenous administration of this tumor-targeted contrast agent to tumor-bearing mice showed significantly higher photoacoustic signal in the tumor than in mice injected with the untargeted contrast agent. The new contrast agent gave a markedly 300 times higher photoacoustic contrast in living tissues than previously reported SWNTs, leading to subnanomolar sensitivities. Finally, we show that the new contrast agent can detect approximately 20 times fewer cancer cells than previously reported SWNTs.