129Xe ultra-fast Z spectroscopy enables micromolar detection of biosensors on a 1 T benchtop spectrometer

Published: Wednesday, 04 August 2021 - 00:00 UTC

Author: Thorsten Maly

Chighine, Kévin, Estelle Léonce, Céline Boutin, Hervé Desvaux, and Patrick Berthault. “129Xe Ultra-Fast Z Spectroscopy Enables Micromolar Detection of Biosensors on a 1 T Benchtop Spectrometer.” Magnetic Resonance 2, no. 1 (June 11, 2021): 409–20.

https://doi.org/10.5194/mr-2-409-2021.

The availability of a benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer, of low cost and easily transportable, can allow detection of low quantities of biosensors, provided that hyperpolarized species are used. Here we show that the micromolar threshold can easily be reached by employing laser-polarized xenon and cage molecules reversibly hosting it. Indirect detection of caged xenon is made via chemical exchange, using ultra-fast Z spectroscopy based on spatio-temporal encoding. On this non-dedicated low-field spectrometer, several ideas are proposed to improve the signal.