Preparation and Applications of Targeted Ultrasound Contrast Agents

Molecularly targeted contrast agents will not only broadly extend conventional anatomical imaging into molecular imaging, but also create new opportunities on therapy. Preparation of targeted contrast agents depends on both physical properties of contrast agents and the conjugated biological molecules. Ultrasonic molecular imaging of angiogenesis in cancer and thrombosis has been intensively studied thanks to the rapid discovery of novel biomarkers and affinity ligands. The purpose of this study therefore is to develop targeted ultrasound contrast agents able to recognize thrombi and tumor angiogenesis. Angiogenesis recently has been extensively studied because it is the source of nutrition and metastasis for tumor cells.　Anti-angiogenic therapy, which makes use of angiogenic inhibitors to suppress this mechanism, provides a new way for cancer treatment. However, the lack of effective techniques to assess angiogenesis efficiency impedes fundamental researches and clinical diagnoses. Ultrasonic molecular imaging of tumor angiogenesis may be a potential solution. To construct an ultrasonic imaging system for angiogenesis, endothelial surface proteins