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Metallostar packs six Gd3+ ions into tight space A starburst-shaped heterometallic compound that incorporates six gadolinium ions into a relatively small space could find use as a novel contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for specialized applications, such as cell imaging (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2005, 44, 1480). To pack all those Gd ions into a modestly sized molecule, Éva Tóth, André E. Merbach, and colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, designed a novel ligand (L), which incorporates a 2,2´-bipyridine group for binding Fe2+ and two poly(aminocarboxylate) substituents for binding Gd3+. The ligand self-assembles along with Fe2+ and Gd3+ into the metallostar, [Fe{Gd2L(H2O)4}3]4-, (shown) with iron (light blue) at its core and gadolinium (yellow) at the tips of the metallostar's six arms. According to the authors, the compound has "the highest relaxivity per molecular mass ever reported for a Gd3+ complex." This property makes the molecule a good candidate for use as a contrast agent in imaging single cells by MRI because the metallostar could be delivered into a lone cell without destroying the cell. |
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