Fabrication of Multifunctional Layer-by-Layer Nanocapsulestoward the Design of Theragnostic Nanoplatform.

Self-assembled polymeric nanocapsules(NCs) that incorporate dendrimerporphyrin (DP) in the shells and superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles(SPIONs) in the cores are fabricated to create a theragnostic platformfor the application in photodynamic therapy (PDT) and magnetic resonanceimaging (MRI). SPIONs-embedded polystyrene NPs (SPIONs@PS) are usedas a template to build up multilayered NCs. The formation of PAH/DPmultilayer on the SPIONs@PS is monitored by zeta-pential and fluorescenceemission measurement, because the porphyrin unit in the core of DPhas strong red fluorescence emission. NCs have strong enough magneticproperty (>20 emu/g) for MRI application with typical superparamagneticbehavior, where the linear correlation of R2 and Fe concentrationat diluted conditions led to corresponding T2 relaxivity coefficient(r2) value of 93.5 mM–1s–1. Cell viability study upon light irradiation reveals that NCs cansuccessfully work in photosensitizer formulation for PDT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]