Au Nanocage Functionalized with Ultra-small Fe(3)O(4) Nanoparticles for Targeting T(1)–T(2)Dual MRI and CT Imaging of Tumor

Diagnostic approaches based on multimodal imaging of clinical noninvasive imaging (eg. MRI/CT scanner) are highly developed in recent years for accurate selection of the therapeutic regimens in critical diseases. Therefore, it is highly demanded in the development of appropriate all-in-one multimodal contrast agents (MCAs) for the MRI/CT multimodal imaging. Here a novel ideal MCAs (F-AuNC@Fe(3)O(4)) were engineered by assemble Au nanocages (Au NC) and ultra-small iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe(3)O(4)) for simultaneous T(1)–T(2)dual MRI and CT contrast imaging. In this system, the Au nanocages offer facile thiol modification and strong X-ray attenuation property for CT imaging. The ultra-small Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles, as excellent contrast agent, is able to provide great enhanced signal of T(1)- and T(2)-weighted MRI (r(1) = 6.263 mM(−1) s(−1), r(2) = 28.117 mM(−1) s(−1)) due to their ultra-refined size. After functionalization, the present MCAs nanoparticles exhibited small average size, low aggregation and excellent biocompatible. In vitro and In vivo studies revealed that the MCAs show long-term circulation time, renal clearance properties and outstanding capability of selective accumulation in tumor tissues for simultaneous CT imaging and T(1)- and T(2)-weighted MRI. Taken together, these results show that as-prepared MCAs are excellent candidates as MRI/CT multimodal imaging contrast agents.