BiVO(4)/Fe(3)O(4)@polydopamine superparticles for tumor multimodal imaging and synergistic therapy

BACKGROUND: Despite tremendous progress has been achieved in tumor theranostic over the past decade, accurate identification and complete eradication of tumor cells remain a great challenge owing to the limitation of single imaging modality and therapeutic strategy. RESULTS: Herein, we successfully design and construct BiVO(4)/Fe(3)O(4)@polydopamine (PDA) superparticles (SPs) for computed tomography (CT)/photoacoustic (PA)/magnetic resonance (MR) multimodal imaging and radiotherapy (RT)/photothermal therapy (PTT) synergistic therapy toward oral epithelial carcinoma. On the one hand, BiVO(4) NPs endow BiVO(4)/Fe(3)O(4)@PDA SPs with impressive X-ray absorption capability due to the high X-ray attenuation coefficient of Bi, which is beneficial for their utilization as radiosensitizers for CT imaging and RT. On the other hand, Fe(3)O(4) NPs impart BiVO(4)/Fe(3)O(4)@PDA SPs with the superparamagnetic property as a T(2)-weighted contrast agent for MR imaging. Importantly, the aggregation of Fe(3)O(4) NPs in SPs and the presence of PDA shell greatly improve the photothermal conversion capability of SPs, making BiVO(4)/Fe(3)O(4)@PDA SPs as an ideal photothermal transducer for PA imaging and PTT. By integrating advantages of various imaging modalities (CT/PA/MR) and therapeutic strategies (RT/PTT), our BiVO(4)/Fe(3)O(4)@PDA SPs exhibit the sensitive multimodal imaging feature and superior synergistic therapeutic efficacy on tumors. CONCLUSIONS: Since there are many kinds of building blocks with unique properties appropriating for self-assembly, our work may largely enrich the library of nanomateirals for tumor diagnosis and treatment. [Image: see text]