How green tea could help improve MRIs

Date: March 18, 2015

Source: American Chemical Society

Summary:

Green tea's popularity has grown quickly in recent years. Its fans can drink it, enjoy its flavor in their ice cream and slather it on their skin with lotions infused with it. Now, the tea could have a new, unexpected role -- to improve the image quality of MRIs. Scientists report that they successfully used compounds from green tea to help image cancer tumors in mice.

Green tea's popularity has grown quickly in recent years. Its fans can drink it, enjoy its flavor in their ice cream and slather it on their skin with lotions infused with it. Now, the tea could have a new, unexpected role -- to improve the image quality of MRIs. Scientists report in the journalACS Applied Materials & Interfaces that they successfully used compounds from green tea to help image cancer tumors in mice.

Sanjay Mathur and colleagues note that recent research has revealed the potential usefulness of nanoparticles -- iron oxide in particular -- to make biomedical imaging better. But the nanoparticles have their disadvantages. They tend to cluster together easily and need help getting to their destinations in the body. To address these issues, researchers have recently tried attaching natural nutrients to the nanoparticles. Mathur's team wanted to see if compounds from green tea, which research suggests has anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties, could play this role.

Using a simple, one-step process, the researchers coated iron-oxide nanoparticles with green-tea compounds called catechins and administered them to mice with cancer. MRIs demonstrated that the novel imaging agents gathered in tumor cells and showed a strong contrast from surrounding non-tumor cells. The researchers conclude that the catechin-coated nanoparticles are promising candidates for use in MRIs and related applications.

The authors acknowledge funding from the University of Cologne and the EU Project Nanommune.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by American Chemical Society.Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:

Lisong Xiao, Marianne Mertens, Laura Wortmann, Silke Kremer, Martin Valldor, Twan Lammers, Fabian Kiessling, Sanjay Mathur. EnhancedIn VitroandIn VivoCellular Imaging with Green Tea Coated Water-Soluble Iron Oxide Nanocrystals. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2015; 150317104440006 DOI:10.1021/am508404t

Cite This Page:

American Chemical Society. "How green tea could help improve MRIs." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 March 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150318130428.htm>.