Synthesis and characterization of a new water-soluble endohedral metallofullerene for MRI contrast agents

Water-soluble amino acid derivatives of gadolinium (Gd) endohedral metallofullerenes (AAD-EMFs), Gd@C82Om(OH)n(NHCH2CH2COOH)l (m ≈ 6, n ≈ 16 and l ≈ 8) are synthesized by a direct reaction of the pure endohedral metallofullerene Gd@C82 with an excess of alkaline solution of β-alanine. The structure of the AAD-EMFs is characterized by FTIR, XPS and laser-desorption time-of-flight (LD-TOF) mass spectrometries. Water proton relaxivity analysis indicates that the longitudinal relaxivity R1 (the effect on 1/T1, 9.1 mM−1 s−1) of AAD-EMFs is higher than that of the commercial MRI contrast agent, Magnevist (gadolinium-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, Gd-DTPA, 5.6 mM−1 s−1). The MRI phantom studies are performed to confirm the high efficiency of this sample as MRI contrast agents.