Synthesis of a Zn(II)-Responsive ParaCEST MRI Agent for Improved Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer

In the United States, prostate cancer is the leading type of cancer diagnosed in men. Prostate cancer is currently diagnosed with the Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test; however, it leads to many false positives and therefore unneeded biopsies. Previous studies have shown that cancerous prostates have a much lower concentration of zinc than healthy prostates. The goal of this project is to create an MRI contrast agent capable of non-invasively quantifying zinc in the human prostate. Five out of the eight synthetic steps have been successfully completed so far, and the identities of these intermediate products have been verified by ¹H-NMR and ¹³C-NMR Spectroscopy. Future work will include completion of the synthesis of the MRI contrast agent and investigation of its properties in the presence of different concentrations of zinc.