Protein-Modified CuS Nanotriangles: A Potential Multimodal Nanoplatform for In Vivo Tumor Photoacoustic/Magnetic Resonance Dual-Modal Imaging

Controllable preparation of water-soluble multifunctional nanoprobes is of great significance for cancer early diagnosis. In this study, protein-modified hydrophilic copper sufide (CuS) nanotriangles with tunable absorption in the second near-infrared region are developed in the presence of halide ions. Further, gadolinium ions chelated diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid is conjugated on it by using the unique characteristics of the protein-protected nanotriangles. Specifically, the as-obtained nanostructures are investigated as contrast agents for enhanced in vivo photoacoustic/magnetic resonance dual-modal tumor imaging. More importantly, in vitro and in vivo toxicity analysis are also performed, which show that the dual-modal nanoprobes are biocompatible for most of the cases. It is demonstrated that the novel as-prepared protein-modified nanotriangles are able to work as a nanoplatform to construct dual-modal nanoprobes, which paves a new avenue for improving the photoacoustic/magnetic resonance imaging contrast in cancer detection. It should be pointed out that other functional blocks may also be linked on it, which makes it a general method to design multifunctional nanoprobes.

水溶性多功能纳米探针的可控制备对癌症早期诊断具有重要意义。在本研究中，在卤离子存在的情况下，开发了在第二近红外区域具有可调吸收的蛋白质修饰的亲水性硫化铜（CuS）纳米三角形。此外，利用蛋白质保护的纳米三角形的独特特性，将钆离子螯合的二乙烯三胺五乙酸连接在其上。具体而言，对所获得的纳米结构作为造影剂进行了研究，以用于增强体内光声/磁共振双模态肿瘤成像。更重要的是，还进行了体外和体内毒性分析，结果表明双模态纳米探针在大多数情况下具有生物相容性。研究表明，新制备的蛋白质修饰的纳米三角形能够作为一个纳米平台来构建双模态纳米探针，这为提高癌症检测中的光声/磁共振成像对比度开辟了一条新途径。应该指出的是，其他功能模块也可以连接在其上，这使其成为设计多功能纳米探针的一种通用方法。