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Assessment of atherosclerotic plaque burden with an elastin-specific magnetic resonance contrast agent

Here we report a novel elastin-binding contrast agent for the non-invasive visualisation of plaque formation. We demonstrate that elastin is increasingly upregulated with atherosclerosis progression and reduced in response to statin treatment. Upregulation of elastin has been also found in patients with symptomatic carotid artery disease, aortic aneurysms and in post infarct remodelling further corroborating the importance of this imaging biomarker. Elastin imaging is a scalable technology that offers a powerful and specific new biomarker for the diagnosis and investigation of many important diseases, including atherosclerosis, aortic aneurysm, myocardial, liver and renal fibrosis, or chronic inflammatory diseases.