Applications of MagniXene™ and MagniLium™

Magnetic Resonance Imaging has transformed medical diagnosis over the past 30 years. Developed in the late 1970’s by Paul Lauterbur and later refined by Sir Peter Mansfield, MRI exploits magnetism in the hydrogen nuclei found in all water, fat, and other tissues of the body. Since different tissue environments produce different magnetic responses, MRI can delineate the structural boundaries of these different tissues. MRI can also highlight functional body processes by enhancing, suppressing or leaving a magnetic marker on moving fluids. Foreign substances that modify the magnetism of protons, such as a fluid containing gadolinium, can be injected in order to enhance the contrast of some tissues relative to others. Highly refined procedures can exploit the spatial and time dependence of this injected liquid to identify cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Nearly a quarter of all MRI scans use a contrast agent.

MagniXene™ and MagniLium™ are different kinds of contrast agents. Rather than modify the properties of the magnetism of the hydrogen in your body like gadolinium, magnetized gases carries their own unique magnetism into your lungs. The MRI scanner can manipulate this new magnetism and interrogate its signal independently to determine the local properties of its living environment and its time-dependent transport. In addition, the signals from magnetized gases disappear in less than a minute, allowing scans to be repeated or modified. Gadolinium continues circulating in the body for hours, complicating repeat procedures. Finally, magnetized gases are breathed rather than injected through a needle.

Some scans are performed to delineate the structures of soft tissues inside the body. For structural imaging, the contrast is optimized to determine the boundaries of those structures. Other scans are performed to determine function. Functional scans depict different image intensities depending on how well an organ is doing its job. One example would be depicting blood flow in the brain to identify stroke. Magnetized gases can be used as both structural and functional imaging contrast agents.

We identify a suite of eight diagnostic protocols which provide a full spectrum of information on lung health and disease. While all of these eight protocols can be measured with MagniXene™, only four of them are accessible with MagniLium™. More research is required, however, to determine which information from which gas product is most informative to doctors in helping them to make decisions about patient treatment plans, or drug companies demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of new therapies.