Nanoparticles for multi-modality cancer diagnosis: Simple protocol for self-assembly of gold nanoclusters mediated by gadolinium ions

• Published in: Biomaterials Vol. 120; pp. 103 - 114
• Main Authors: Hou, Wenxiu, Xia, Fangfang, Alfranca, Gabriel, Yan, Hao, Zhi, Xiao, Liu, Yanlei, Peng, Chen, Zhang, Chunlei, de la Fuente, Jesus Martinez, Cui, Daxiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 01-03-2017
• Subjects: A549 Cells; Advanced Basic Science; Animals; Assembly; Contrast Media - chemical synthesis; Crystallization - methods; Dentistry; Diagnosis; Female; Gadolinium - chemistry; Gd3+ ions; Gold - chemistry; Gold Colloid - chemistry; Gold nanoclusters (GNCs); Humans; Image Enhancement - methods; Infrared Rays; Ions - chemistry; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Metal Nanoparticles - chemistry; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Nude; Microscopy, Fluorescence - methods; Multi-modality imaging; Multimodal Imaging - methods; Nanocomposites - chemistry; Nanocomposites - ultrastructure; Neoplasms, Experimental - diagnostic imaging; Neoplasms, Experimental - pathology; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Tomography, X-Ray Computed - methods; Gd 3+ ions; Multi-modality imaging; Diagnosis; Assembly; Gold nanoclusters (GNCs); Gd3+ ions; Gd(3+) ions
• ISSN: 0142-9612; 1878-5905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2016.12.027

Abstract It is essential to develop a simple synthetic strategy to improve the quality of multifunctional contrast agents for cancer diagnosis. Herein, we report a time-saving method for gadolinium (Gd3+ ) ions-mediated self-assembly of gold nanoclusters (GNCs) into monodisperse spherical nanoparticles (GNCNs) under mild conditions. The monodisperse, regular and colloidal stable GNCNs were formed via selectively inducing electrostatic interactions between negatively-charged carboxylic groups of gold nanoclusters and trivalent cations of gadolinium in aqueous solution. In this way, the Gd3+ ions were chelated into GNCNs without the use of molecular gadolinium chelates. With the co-existence of GNCs and Gd3+ ions, the formed GNCNs exhibit significant luminescence intensity enhancement for near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging, high X-ray attenuation for computed tomography (CT) imaging and reasonable r1 relaxivity for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. The excellent biocompatibility of the GNCNs was proved both in vitro and in vivo . Meanwhile, the GNCNs also possess unique NIRF/CT/MR imaging ability in A549 tumor-bearing mice. In a nutshell, the simple and safe GNCNs hold great potential for tumor multi-modality clinical diagnosis.