Multifunctional nanoparticles as coupled contrast agents.
Engineering compact imaging probes with highly integrated modalities is a key focus in bionanotechnology and will have profound impact on molecular diagnostics, imaging and therapeutics. However, combining multiple components on a nanometre scale to create new imaging modalities unavailable from individual components has proven to be challenging. In this paper, we demonstrate iron oxide and gold-coupled core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) with well-defined structural characteristics (for example, size, shell thickness and core-shell separation) and physical properties (for example, electronic, magnetic, optical, thermal and acoustic). The resulting multifunctional nanoprobes not only offer contrast for electron microscopy, magnetic resonance imaging and scattering-based imaging but, more importantly, enable a new imaging mode, magnetomotive photoacoustic imaging, with remarkable contrast enhancement compared with photoacoustic images using conventional NP contrast agents.
Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, William H Foege Building N530M, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
Yongdong
Y
Jin
Congxian
C
Jia
Sheng-Wen
SW
Huang
Matthew
M
O'Donnell
Xiaohu
X
Gao
D003287:Contrast Media / Q000737:chemistry*; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*
D003287:Contrast Media