A bottom-up synthesis of rare-earth-hydrotalcite monolayer nanosheets toward multimode imaging and synergetic therapy

• Published in: Chemical science (Cambridge) Vol. 9; no. 25; pp. 5630 - 5639
• Main Authors: Mei, Xuan, Ma, Jialing, Bai, Xue, Zhang, Xin, Zhang, Shaomin, Liang, Ruizheng, Wei, Min, Evans, David G, Duan, Xue
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 2018
• Subjects: Anticancer properties; Biocompatibility; Biomedical materials; Cancer; Computed tomography; Drug delivery systems; Fluorescence; Gadolinium; Hydroxides; Infrared imaging; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medical imaging; Monolayers; Morphology; Nanomaterials; Nanosheets; Rare earth elements; Sensitivity analysis; Spatial resolution; Synthesis; Ytterbium
• ISSN: 2041-6520; 2041-6539
• DOI: 10.1039/c8sc01288a

Recently, ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have attracted considerable research interest in biomedical applications, owing to their intriguing quantum size and surface effects. In this work, a one-step "bottom-up" method is developed to prepare rare-earth (Gd
and Yb
) co-doped layered double hydroxide (LDH) monolayer nanosheets, with a precisely controlled composition and uniform morphology. Due to the successful introduction of Gd
and Yb
into the LDH host layer, the Gd&Yb-LDH monolayer nanosheets exhibit excellent magnetic resonance (MR)/X-ray computed tomography (CT) dual-mode imaging functionality. Moreover, the Gd&Yb-LDH monolayer nanosheets achieve an ultrahigh loading of a chemotherapeutic drug (SN38) with a loading content (LC) of 925%, which is a one order of magnitude enhancement compared with previously reported delivery systems of hydrophobic drugs. Interestingly, by further combination with indocyanine green (ICG),
tri-mode imaging, including CT, MR and near infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging, is achieved, which enables a noninvasive visualization of cancer cell distribution with deep spatial resolution and high sensitivity. In addition,
and
therapeutic evaluations demonstrate an extremely high tri-mode synergetic anticancer activity and superior biocompatibility of SN38&ICG/Gd&Yb-LDH. Therefore, this work demonstrates a paradigm for the synthesis of novel multifunctional 2D monolayer materials
a facile "bottom-up" route, which shows promising applications in cancer synergetic theranostics.