Kazunori Kataoka, Director of Nanomedical Innovation Center (Specially Appointed Professor, Policy Vision Research Center, University of Tokyo), Senior Researcher Yone Peng, Professor Nobuhiro Nishiyama, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ichio Aoki, Team Leader, Quantum Science and Technology Research and Development Organization, etc. The company announced that it has developed a nanomachine contrasting agent that can visualize malignancy and "hypoxic region in tumor" with high sensitivity by MRI in a microenvironment.

 Currently, MRI is widely used in Japan as a magnetic diagnostic imaging device that does not use radiation.Especially in the diagnosis of cancer, it is said that there is a strong demand in recent years for the development of safe and highly functional contrast media as well as the performance improvement of the MRI device itself.

 The research team has succeeded in developing a nanomachine contrast agent in which a manganese contrast agent with an MRI contrast effect is mounted on "calcium phosphate nanoparticles".This contrast agent is covered with an outer shell that is safe for living organisms and dissolves in response to the low pH environment of cancer tissue.It is said that the manganese contrast agent released from the nanoparticles has the property of amplifying the MRI signal about 7 times by binding to the protein of the cancer tissue.In addition, it was found that the part where the signal increases remarkably in the central part of the cancer is the hypoxic region showing resistance to anticancer drugs and radiotherapy, so this region can be visualized with high sensitivity and high accuracy.This time, he succeeded in detecting microscopic colorectal cancer with a diameter of only 1.5 mm that had metastasized to the liver with high sensitivity, and showed superior detection power compared to existing MRI contrast agents.

 This nanomachine contrast agent is a relatively inexpensive low-field MRI device that is the most widely used in clinical practice, and is said to be extremely useful because it shows particularly excellent signal elevation.In addition, it is expected to be applied to early detection of cancer and metastasis, prediction of therapeutic effect and judgment of therapeutic effect, and it is expected to realize highly reliable cancer diagnosis and treatment that will not be overlooked in the future.

Tokyo University

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The University of Tokyo was established in 1877 (Meiji 10) by integrating the Tokyo Kaisei School and the Tokyo Medical School.Since its establishment, it has developed education and research in a unique way in the world as a leading university in Japan and an academic center for the fusion of East and West cultures.As a result, many human resources have been produced in a wide range of fields, and many research achievements […]

Tokyo Institute of Technology

The pinnacle of science and engineering university that continues to produce science and engineering people with high aspirations and a Japanese spirit, mastering the knowledge that creates the times, refining their skills

Tokyo Institute of Technology was established as the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1881 (Meiji 14), when modernization of industry was an urgent need.Since its establishment, it has continued to produce excellent research results with excellent science and engineering human resources, and is still at the top of Japan's science and engineering universities.Tokyo Institute of Technology requires not only a high degree of specialization but also liberal arts […]

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