But in recent years, a growing number of MRI patients have reported feeling unusual symptoms – such as joint pain, body aches, and loss of memory within days and sometimes even hours after an MRI scan. Some patients have also reported long-term chronic side effects such as kidney damage. According to Abergel, those symptoms could be linked to gadolinium, which has been shown to deposit in bones. Other studies have found gadolinium deposits in the brains of MRI patients who were administered GBCAs.
Some patients have suspected that the source of their new illnesses is the GBCA injected into their bodies before undergoing an MRI.
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There is currently not enough scientific evidence to prove that there is a link, but Abergel hopes to fill in the gap: “With funding from generous supporters through the Berkeley Lab Foundation, we were able to establish The Marcie Jacobs Fund for Gadolinium Toxicity Research and start investigating how gadolinium interacts with biological molecules and organs. What does gadolinium do that would result in toxicity and observable symptoms in patients?” she said.
Finding better ways to reduce toxic gadolinium retention in the body
While Abergel’s anti-radiation-poisoning pill was approved for its first in-human Phase 1 safety trial in 2014, she and her team noted that the chelator – a HOPO or hydroxypyridinone ligand – lends itself to being administered in a pill, is nontoxic when administered in therapeutic dosages, and is not only highly selective for plutonium and other heavy, radioactive elements (known as actinides), but is also highly selective for lanthanides such as gadolinium.
“So, we thought that we should investigate whether this HOPO chelator could remove gadolinium deposits from MRI patients after the contrast agent has done its job,” she said.
As reported in 2018 in the Nature online publication Scientific Reports, Abergel and her team used animal models to demonstrate that, when compared to conventional chelators such as diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid or DTPA, their HOPO chelator is many times more effective at removing gadolinium deposits.
“We also found that if we give the drug right before or right after the MRI, we can prevent up to 96% of the gadolinium from depositing,” said Abergel.
The researchers also found that their HOPO chelator is more selective of gadolinium than DTPA. When DTPA binds to gadolinium, for example, it can also bind to and deplete the body of important minerals such as calcium and zinc, she explained.
