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Abstract  Leptomeningeal (LM) carcinomatosis is an increasing clinical complication in patients with advanced breast cancer (BC). The LM carcinomatosis diagnostic procedures rely mainly on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cytology, although both the amount of CSF and the number of malignant cells remain limiting factors. Therefore, efforts should be made to design new highly sensitive diagnostic tools to detect malignant cells in CSF of BC patients with LM carcinomatosis. In this study, the human Mammaglobin (hMAM) mRNA amplification by RT-PCR was employed to detect metastatic cells in CSF and thus, to diagnose LM carcinomatosis in a BC patient. Our data demonstrate that hMAM transcripts are expressed in the CSF of a BC patient with LM carcinomatosis, hence making RT-PCR for hMAM a potentially suitable test to identify occult BC cells in the brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel Gd(iii) complex with a modified DO3A-like chelating cage has been synthesized and characterized as a candidate contrast agent responsive to the concentration of free thiols in tissues (essentially represented by reduced glutathione, GSH). The novel compound (called Gd-DO3AS-Act) bears a flexible linker ending with a 2-pyridyl-dithio group, that can promptly react with free thiols (XSH) to form mixed disulfides of the form Gd-DO3AS-SX. Compound Gd-DO3AS-Act is characterized by a millimolar relaxivity as high as 8.1 mM−1 s−1 (at 20 MHz, 25 °C and pH 7.4). Upon reaction with GSH, the Gd-DO3AS-SG covalent adduct is formed and the millimolar relaxivity drops to 4.1 mM−1 s−1. Such a decrease in relaxivity is explained on the basis of the formation of an intramolecular coordinative bond between one of the glutathionyl carboxyl groups and the Gd(iii) centre, lowering the hydration state of the paramagnetic centre. 1H-NMR dispersion profiles together with 17O-NMR transverse relaxation time versus temperature profiles confirm that the hydration of the Gd(iii) centre is strongly reduced ongoing from Gd-DO3AS-Act to the Gd-DO3AS-SG adduct. The relaxivity difference brought about by the reaction of Gd-DO3AS-Act with GSH can be enhanced up to 60% in the presence of poly-β-cyclodextrin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The in vitrovalidation of a new pH mapping MRI method based on a supramolecular poly-β-cyclodextrin–19F–Gd adduct is reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cells display on the outer surface of the plasma membrane a large number of protein thiols that can be reversibly labelled with suitably designed GdIII-based contrast agents for cell tracking by MRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improved LIPOCEST MRI contrast agents with highly shifted intraliposomal water protons were prepared by entrapping neutral polynuclear Tm(iii)-based paramagnetic shift reagents in phospholipidic vesicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]