Part 1 of 2 Parts
Rebecca Abergel is an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkley. She headed a team at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to developed an anti-radiation-poisoning pill in 2014. At the time, they hoped that it would never need to be used for intended purposes such as removing radioactive contaminants from peoples’ bodies in case of something like the meltdown of a nuclear reactor or the detonation of a nuclear bomb.
Now the researchers are working on how their pill might be able to protect people from another source of toxicity. When a person undergoes a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedure, they are injected with a contrast enhancement dye that contains gadolinium. Gadolinium is a soft rare earth metal that has the ability to absorb a lot of neutrons which makes it idea to enhance contrast in an MRI. In some people who need many MRIs for a serious medical condition, there is a danger of a buildup of gadolinium in their bodies which can be harmful.
Abergel said, “I've always been interested in public health applications. Our current work could help thousands of patients who rely on MRIs to have a better understanding of where a tumor might be located and whether it's cancerous and has spread to other organs but are concerned about the potential side effects caused by the retention of gadolinium inside the body.”
MRIs are prescribed by U.S. physicians thirty million times a year. They use large magnets to excite hydrogen atoms in the human body. Radio waves are used to detect tiny magnetic fluctuation as the hydrogen atoms relax back to their original state. When analyzed by the computer, the magnetic fluctuations are used to construct whole body images of internal organs, muscles, tendons and bones.
MRIs first became available around 1980 and have been considered to be very safe for patients. The later introduction of gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) enhanced the visibility of blood vessels in the heart and brain by amplifying the signal emitted by the excited hydrogen atoms. About one third of all current MRIs are carried out with GBCAs.
Gadolinium is one of fifteen metallic chemical elements which constitute the lanthanide series in the periodic table. Gadolinium is a heavy metal that is toxic to the human body. When it is used in a contrast dye for MRIs, it is bound to a molecule that helps to rapidly clear the gadolinium from the body through urination. It was believed that this rapid expulsion from the body prevented any negative toxic effects.
In recent years, a number of MRI patients have been reporting experiencing adverse symptoms following MRIs. These symptoms included joint pain, body aches and loss of memory within days of an MRI scan. There have been reports of long-term chronic side effects such as damage to kidneys. Abergel says that these symptoms could be connected to gadolinium absorbed by their bones. Gadolinium has also been found in the brains of some patients who were given MRIs.
Please read Part 2