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Aptamer‐Crosslinked Microbubbles: Smart Contrast Agents for Thrombin‐Activated Ultrasound Imaging
Author(s) -
Nakatsuka Matthew A.,
Mattrey Robert F.,
Esener Sadik C.,
Cha Jennifer N.,
Goodwin Andrew P.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201201484
Subject(s) - microbubbles , thrombin , materials science , aptamer , ultrasound , biomedical engineering , blood clotting , contrast (vision) , thrombin time , biophysics , medicine , platelet , radiology , microbiology and biotechnology , partial thromboplastin time , optics , biology , physics
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 n M thrombin and 2 a M microbubbles.