Production of magnetic multilamellar liposomes as highly T(2)-efficient MRI contrast agents.

Lipid-based multilamellar vesicles loaded with aminosilane-modified maghemite nanoparticles (a-MNPs), also called magnetonions (MO), were analyzed for their magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent properties. They were shown to be better T(2)-MRI contrast agents than commercial contrast agents and other reported liposome-based contrast agents as shown by their higher value of relaxivity ratio (r(2)/r(1) = 17), although a lower magnetic field intensity was used (0.2 T). Their high efficiency was explained by the aggregation of a-MNPs in between multilamellar vesicles, bilayers induced by MO preparation, and evidenced by cryo-TEM imaging. Magnetonions are then a promising platform for diagnosis and therapy. FROM THE CLINICAL EDITOR: In this study, magnetonions (MO) are presented as a very potent T2 relaxation enhancing MRI contrast agents. Such agents may be used in cell labeling and molecular imaging applications