Superparamagnetic Nanoprobes Based on Core@Shell Structures for Enhanced MRI and Fluorescent Labeling

Qian Zhang *, Daxiang Cui

 

Institute of Nano Biomedicine and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center for Intelligent Instrument for Diagnosis and Therapy, Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of Ministry of Education, Department of Instrument Science and Engineering, School of Electronic Information and Electronical Engineering, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China.

 

* Corresponding author. E-mail: qianzhang0130@sjtu.edu.cn

 

Presented: 2018 Chinese Conference on Oncology. Shenyang, China, Aug. 17-19, 2018; Published: Oct. 18, 2018

 

Citation: Qian Zhang, Daxiang Cui, Superparamagnetic Nanoprobes Based on Core@Shell Structures for Enhanced MRI and Fluorescent Labeling. Nano Biomed. Eng., 2018, Special Issue: 324.

 

Abstract

Because of their specific physic-chemical properties, superparamagnetic nanoprobes have been widely applied for biomedical applications in drug delivery, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic fluid hyperthermia, diagnosis, and so forth. However, the synthesized nanoprobes always have low stability, high toxicity, and unfavorable treatment. In this study, we synthesized a Core@shell architectures with combinations of CoFe₂O₄ as core and MnFe₂O₄ as shell, and phase transfer into aqueous solution by 2% TAMRA labeled amphiphilic polymer. This monodisperse nanoparticles have uniform size distribution (d_c=15 nm), and the polymer has a thickness of about 2.7 nm. This nanoparticles are then further functionalized with PEG molecules (NH₂-PEG-NH₂, M_W: 2 kDa), and modified with target molecules (folic acid, FA) to finally fabricate the superparamagnetic PMA_TAMRA-Co@Mn-PEG_2k-FA nanoprobes. This nanoprobes have excellent good biocompatibility, high T₂ relaxation values as well as long-term fluorescence stability. From the result we can see, superparamagnetic PMA_TAMRA-Co@Mn-PEG_2k-FA nanoprobes can effectively enhance the targeted MRI and fluorescent labeling for gastric cancer regions, which could be applied as a T₂ weighted MR contrast agent to trace the variations of the tumor regions for tumor-targeted MR imaging. Besides, the elements from the nanoprobes could be used for analyzing the cell uptake and tumor targeting pathway in vitro and in vivo.

 

Keywords: Superparamagnetic nanoprobes; Core@shell architectures; MRI; Fluorescence labeling

 

Copyright© Qian Zhang, Daxiang Cui. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

 

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