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Ultrasound Imaging of Treatment‐Needed Cardiac Rejection with CD4‐Targeted Nanobubbles
Author(s) -
Xie Yu,
Xie Yuji,
Chen Yihan,
Deng Cheng,
Fang Lingyun,
Li He,
Sun Zhenxing,
Gao Tang,
Liu Jie,
Yuan Jing,
Li Yuman,
Jin Qiaofeng,
Zhang Li,
Xie Mingxing
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
particle and particle systems characterization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.877
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1521-4117
pISSN - 0934-0866
DOI - 10.1002/ppsc.202100091
Subject(s) - ultrasound , pathological , asymptomatic , medicine , radiology
Acute cardiac allograft rejection (ACAR) is one of the main reasons for mortality after heart transplantation. The timely diagnosis of treatment‐needed ACAR is of great importance in the clinic. Molecular imaging may make accurate diagnoses at the early stage to visualize the activity of specific pathological processes. The amount of CD4 + ‐lymphocyte infiltration is a crucial index in ACAR grading. CD4‐targeted nanobubbles (NB CD4 ) are fabricated to assess the infiltrating CD4 + lymphocytes, while isotype control nanobubbles (NB Iso ) are also fabricated. Animal models with ACAR grades from 0R to 3R are established. Ultrasound molecular imaging (USMI) is performed to distinguish different rejection grades with NB CD4 . In the grade 2R and 3R groups, the USMI signals of NB CD4 are significantly higher than those of NB Iso . The signals of NB CD4 in the 2R group are significantly lower than those in the 3R group and significantly higher than those in the 1R and 0R groups. Moreover, the signals of NB CD4 are strongly correlated with the rejection grades and the number of infiltrating CD4 + lymphocytes. As asymptomatic rejection with 2R or higher grades should be seriously treated, USMI with NB CD4 may be a new approach to timely diagnosis of treatment‐needed ACAR.