Magnetic targeting core/shell Fe3O4/Au nanoparticles for magnetic resonance/photoacoustic dual-modal imaging.

This study reports magnetic targeting guided magnetic (MR)/photoacoustic (PA) dual-modal imaging by core/shell Fe3O4/Au nanoparticles. In this work, MR imaging provides time-dependent tumor location, and PA imaging reveals high resolution vasculatures inside the tumor. It is noted that the synthesized Fe3O4/Au nanoparticles exhibited higher r2 value up to 329 mM-1 s-1 than previously reported T2 contrast agents. Furthermore, the Fe3O4/Au NPs are applied as a promising candidate for in vivo MR/PA imaging of tumors by intravenously injection into LNCaP tumor-beared mice. The MR/PA imaging results show a significantly enhanced MR/PA images in the tumor site. The prepared core/shell Fe3O4/Au nanoparticles will be widely applicable in multi-modal imaging.