Sugar-based biopolymers have been recognized as attractive materials to develop macromolecule- and nanoparticle-based cancer imaging and therapy. However, traditional biopolymer-based imaging approaches rely on the use of synthetic or isotopic labeling, and because of it, clinical translation often is hindered. Recently, a novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST), has emerged, which allows the exploitation of sugar-based biopolymers as MRI agents by their hydroxyl protons-rich nature. In the study, we reviewed recent studies on the topic of CEST MRI detection of sugar-based biopolymers. The CEST MRI property of each biopolymer was briefly introduced, followed by the pre-clinical and clinical applications. The findings of these preliminary studies imply the enormous potential of CEST detectable sugar-based biopolymers in developing highly sensitive and translatable molecular imaging agents and constructing image-guided biopolymer-based drug delivery systems. This article is categorized under: Diagnostic Tools > in vivo Nanodiagnostics and Imaging Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Emerging Technologies.

中文翻译：

---

糖基生物聚合物作为分子磁共振成像的新型成像剂。

糖基生物聚合物被公认为是开发基于大分子和纳米颗粒的癌症成像和治疗的诱人材料。然而，传统的基于生物聚合物的成像方法依赖于合成或同位素标记的使用，因此，临床翻译常常受到阻碍。最近，出现了一种新颖的磁共振成像（MRI）技术，即化学交换饱和转移（CEST），该技术可以利用基于糖的生物聚合物中富含羟基质子的性质开发基于糖的生物聚合物作为MRI试剂。在这项研究中，我们回顾了有关基于糖的生物聚合物的CEST MRI检测主题的最新研究。简要介绍了每种生物聚合物的CEST MRI特性，然后介绍了临床前和临床应用。这些初步研究的结果表明，CEST可检测的糖基生物聚合物在开发高度敏感和可翻译的分子显像剂以及构建图像引导的基于生物聚合物的药物传递系统方面具有巨大的潜力。本文归类于：诊断工具>体内纳米诊断和成像治疗方法与药物发现>新兴技术。