Uniform Fe3O4/Gd2O3-DHCA nanocubes for dual-mode magnetic resonance imaging

• Published in: Beilstein journal of nanotechnology Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 1000 - 1009
• Main Authors: Miao, Qin, Peng Yueyou, Xu Mengjie, Yan, Hui, Cheng Yizhu, Zhang, Xiumei, Huang, Di, Chen, Weiyi, Meng Yanfeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frankfurt am Main Beilstein-Institut zur Föerderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften 2020; Beilstein-Institut
• Subjects: 3,4-dihydroxyhydrocinnamic acid (dhca); Acids; Biocompatibility; Contrast agents; Diagnostic systems; dual-mode imaging; fe3o4/gd2o3-dhca nanocubes; Full Research Paper; Gadolinium; gadolinium oxide (gd2o3); Gadolinium oxides; Image contrast; Image enhancement; Iron oxides; iron(ii,iii) oxide (fe3o4); Ligands; Magnetic resonance imaging; magnetic resonance imaging (mri); Medical imaging; Nanoparticles; Nanoscience; Nanotechnology; Relaxation time; Researchers; Spectrum analysis; Synthesis
• ISSN: 2190-4286; 2190-4286
• DOI: 10.3762/bjnano.11.84

The multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique has been extensively studied over the past few years since it offers complementary information that can increase diagnostic accuracy. Simple methods to synthesize contrast agents are necessary for the development of multimodal MRI. Herein, uniformly distributed Fe3O4/Gd2O3 nanocubes for T 1–T 2 dual-mode MRI contrast agents were successfully designed and synthesized. In order to increase hydrophilicity and biocompatibility, the nanocubes were coated with nontoxic 3,4-dihydroxyhydrocinnamic acid (DHCA). The results show that iron (Fe) and gadolinium (Gd) were homogeneously distributed throughout the Fe3O4/Gd2O3-DHCA (FGDA) nanocubes. Relaxation time analysis was performed on the images obtained from the 3.0 T scanner. The results demonstrated that r 1 and r 2 maximum values were 67.57 ± 6.2 and 24.2 ± 1.46 mM−1·s−1, respectively. In vivo T 1- and T 2-weighted images showed that FGDA nanocubes act as a dual-mode contrast agent enhancing MRI quality. Overall, these experimental results suggest that the FGDA nanocubes are interesting tools that can be used to increase MRI quality, enabling accurate clinical diagnostics.