Perfluorocarbons-Based (19)F Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Biomedicine

Fluorine-19 ((19)F) magnetic resonance (MR) molecular imaging is a promising noninvasive and quantitative molecular imaging approach with intensive research due to the high sensitivity and low endogenous background signal of the (19)F atom in vivo. Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) have been used as blood substitutes since 1970s. More recently, a variety of PFC nanoparticles have been designed for the detection and imaging of physiological and pathological changes. These molecular imaging probes have been developed to label cells, target specific epitopes in tumors, monitor the prognosis and therapy efficacy and quantitate characterization of tumors and changes in tumor microenvironment noninvasively, therefore, significantly improving the prognosis and therapy efficacy. Herein, we discuss the recent development and applications of (19)F MR techniques with PFC nanoparticles in biomedicine, with particular emphasis on ligand-targeted and quantitative (19)F MR imaging approaches for tumor detection, oxygenation measurement, smart stimulus response and therapy efficacy monitoring, et al.