Aptamer-crosslinked microbubbles: smart contrast agents for thrombin-activated ultrasound imaging.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Nakatsuka MA
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3626403 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Aptamer-crosslinked microbubbles: smart contrast agents for thrombin-activated ultrasound imaging.
Nakatsuka Matthew A MA Mattrey Robert F RF Esener Sadik C SC Cha Jennifer N JN Goodwin Andrew P AP
Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) 20120903 45
Thrombosis, or malignant blood clotting, is associated with numerous cardiovascular diseases and cancers. A microbubble contrast agent is presented that produces ultrasound harmonic signal only when exposed to elevated thrombin levels. Initially silent microbubbles are activated in the presence of both thrombin-spiked and freshly clotting blood in three minutes with detection limits of 20 nM thrombin and 2 aM microbubbles. ...[more]
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