Dendrimer-Functionalized Shell-crosslinked Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for In-Vivo Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Tumors

Non-invasive diagnosis and detection of early-stage tumorsis regarded as one of the current challenges in the biomedicalsciences. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is a powerful,non-invasive imaging technique because of its high spatialresolution and tomographic capabilities. However, the signalsensitivity of MR imaging for specific biological targets islargelydependentonthespecificityandselectivityoftheligandused to target magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) to specific tissues.Development of tumor-targeted magnetic NPs is necessary toenhance the MR signal sensitivity for in-vivo tumor detection.Variousproteinssuchastransferrin,