Rapid Luminescence Quantification of a Sensitized Gadolinium Based Contrast Agent

Gadolinium based contrast agents (GBCA) are widely used in magnetic resonance imaging and are paramount to cancer diagnostics. Furthermore, accurate quantification of gadolinium in blood/plasma (clinical media) is essential to tumor pharmacokinetic analysis, with current methods being low throughput and clinically unavailable. As such, we have developed a simple luminescence quantification assay to measure the concentration of gadolinium in clinical media using a sensitized GBCA referred to as Gd[DTPA-cs124]. Here, we demonstrate the efficacy, increased relaxivity and enhanced biocompatibility of our agent when compared to other GBCA’s, as well as its ability to model pharmacokinetic clearance in a mouse model.