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The versatile application of nanoparticles in integrating imaging and therapy has aroused extensive research interest in precision medicine. Of the various nanoparticles that have been studied, CuS has shown great potential in the construction of multifunctional agents, owing to its excellent photothermal heating properties. Herein, we report a facile one-pot biomineralization approach for the preparation of versatile bovine-serum-albumin-conjugated CuS/Gd2 O3 hybrid nanoparticles (BSA-CuS/Gd2 O3 HNPs), which simultaneously possessed strong longitudinal relaxivity, an outstanding photothermal effect, high drug-loading capacity, and pH/temperature-responsive drug release. The versatile nanoparticles were used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and antitumor photothermal chemotherapy, both in vitro and in vivo. In vivo MRI showed that the BSA-CuS/Gd2 O3 HNPs had a long circulation time and effective passive tumor-uptake ability. More importantly, combined in vitro and in vivo therapy demonstrated that drug-loaded BSA-CuS/Gd2 O3 HNPs offered outstanding synergistic therapeutic efficacy for tumor inhibition., (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Clinical diagnosis of malignant tumors using nanoprobes needs severe improvements in the aspects of sensitivity and biocompatibility. Integrating a dual-targeting strategy with the selection of human-inherent elements and molecules as raw materials shows great potential in the development of a biosafe and sensitive nanoplatform. To carry out the proposed design, we constructed a biocompatible, dual-targeting MR imaging nanoprobe, based on Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) co-modified with inherently innoxious hyaluronic acid (HA) and transferrin (Tf). HA was used as both a template and a targeting molecule to form Fe3O4@HA NPs through a one-step co-precipitation method, which were then further modified with Tf to obtain the dual-targeting Fe3O4@HA@Tf NPs at room temperature. The excellent biocompatibility of the nanoprobe was demonstrated via toxicity assays in vitro and in vivo. The desirable dual-targeting ability towards tumor cells was confirmed by a cellular uptake test (Hela cells, overexpressing both CD44 and transferrin receptors), and the developed nanoprobe was successfully applied in tumor-targeted MR imaging in vivo. In summation, we developed a dual-targeting Fe3O4 nanoprobe, following a facile procedure at room temperature. The nanoprobe showed a high targeting ability towards tumor cells and excellent biocompatibility, which showed its great potential to be applied in the clinical diagnosis of tumors.

Versatile bioinspired strategies are urgently needed to fabricate high-performance nanoprobes for biomedical application. Herein, a novel bioinspired technology of mimicking drug-substrate interaction is reported for the fabrication of high-performance nanoprobes. As a proof of concept, a multifunctional bovine serum albumin (BSA)-MnO2 nanoparticle-based nanoplatform is strategically engineered via mimicking the disinfection process of KMnO4 in an extremely facile way. The prepared BSA-MnO2 nanoparticles possess sub-10 nm and uniform size, excellent colloidal stability, and impressive T1 relaxivity of 7.9 m m−1 s−1. The proposed nanoprobe could not only be employed as a high-performance magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agent for tumor and renal imaging but can also provide a platform for integrating therapeutic strategies toward tumors. The universal strategy could also be easily extended to the fabrication of other nanoprobes for MR imaging in vivo using other bioactive proteins including ovalbumin and transferrin. This work will open a new way for the development of biomaterials in biomedicine applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical diagnosis of malignant tumors using nanoprobes needs severe improvements in the aspects of sensitivity and biocompatibility. Integrating a dual-targeting strategy with the selection of human-inherent elements and molecules as raw materials shows great potential in the development of a biosafe and sensitive nanoplatform. To carry out the proposed design, we constructed a biocompatible, dual-targeting MR imaging nanoprobe, based on Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) co-modified with inherently innoxious hyaluronic acid (HA) and transferrin (Tf). HA was used as both a template and a targeting molecule to form Fe3O4@HA NPs through a one-step co-precipitation method, which were then further modified with Tf to obtain the dual-targeting Fe3O4@HA@Tf NPs at room temperature. The excellent biocompatibility of the nanoprobe was demonstrated via toxicity assays in vitro and in vivo. The desirable dual-targeting ability towards tumor cells was confirmed by a cellular uptake test (Hela cells, overexpressing both CD44 and transferrin receptors), and the developed nanoprobe was successfully applied in tumor-targeted MR imaging in vivo. In summation, we developed a dual-targeting Fe3O4 nanoprobe, following a facile procedure at room temperature. The nanoprobe showed a high targeting ability towards tumor cells and excellent biocompatibility, which showed its great potential to be applied in the clinical diagnosis of tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]