title: Ultrasmall Ferrite Nanoparticles Synthesized via Dynamic Simultaneous Thermal Decomposition for High-Performance and Multifunctional T1Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agent.
abstract: Large-scale synthesis of monodisperse ultrasmall metal ferrite nanoparticles as well as understanding the correlations between chemical composition and MR signal enhancement is critical for developing next-generation, ultrasensitive T1magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) nanoprobes. Herein, taking ultrasmall MnFe2O4nanoparticles (UMFNPs) as a model system, we report a general dynamic simultaneous thermal decomposition (DSTD) strategy for controllable synthesis of monodisperse ultrasmall metal ferrite nanoparticles with sizes smaller than 4 nm. The comparison study revealed that the DSTD using the iron-eruciate paired with a metal-oleate precursor enabled a nucleation-doping process, which is crucial for particle size and distribution control of ultrasmall metal ferrite nanoparticles. The principle of DSTD synthesis has been further confirmed by synthesizing NiFe2O4and CoFe2O4nanoparticles with well-controlled sizes of ∼3 nm. More significantly, the success in DSTD synthesis allows us to tune both MR and biochemical properties of magnetic iron oxide nanoprobes by adjusting their chemical composition. Beneficial from the Mn2+dopant, the synthesized UMFNPs exhibited the highest r1relaxivity (up to 8.43 mM-1s-1) among the ferrite nanoparticles with similar sizes reported so far and demonstrated a multifunctional T1MR nanoprobe for in vivo high-resolution blood pool and liver-specific MRI simultaneously. Our study provides a general strategy to synthesize ultrasmall multicomponent magnetic nanoparticles, which offers possibilities for the chemical design of a highly sensitive ultrasmall magnetic nanoparticle based T1MRI probe for various clinical diagnosis applications.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an, Shaanxi 710069, China.
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Imaging Diagnosis and Interventional Center, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center , Guangzhou 510060, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an, Shaanxi 710069, China.
authors.forename: Xiao Li
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University , 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510630, China.
authors.forename: Ju
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore , 4 Medical Drive, MD10, 117594, Singapore.
authors.forename: Cheng-Teng
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales , Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Jia Bao
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an, Shaanxi 710069, China.
authors.forename: Yan E
authors.initials: YE
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore , 4 Medical Drive, MD10, 117594, Singapore.
authors.forename: Boon-Huat
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Bay
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials, School of Material Science & Engineering, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Ling Yun
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an, Shaanxi 710069, China.
authors.forename: Ming Li
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biomaterials and Devices, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University , Nanjing 210096, China.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0047-337X
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an, Shaanxi 710069, China.
authors.forename: Hai Ming
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0091-772X
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Fan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000737:chemistry*; D005260:Female; D005290:Ferric Compounds / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D017895:Manganese Compounds / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D005290:Ferric Compounds; D017895:Manganese Compounds; C551151:manganese ferrite
keywords: T1 MR contrast agent; chemical composition effect; dynamic simultaneous thermal decomposition; liver-specific MRI; magnetic resonance imaging; ultrasmall ferrite nanoparticles