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Polyethylene glycol-modified cobalt sulfide nanosheets for high-performance photothermal conversion and photoacoustic/magnetic resonance imaging

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Abstract

Theranostic nanoagents that integrate the diagnoses and therapies within a single nanomaterial are compelling in their use for highly precise and efficient antitumor treatments. Herein, polyethylene glycol (PEG)-modified cobalt sulfide nanosheets (CoS-PEG NSs) are synthesized and unitized as a powerful theranostic nanoagent for efficient photothermal conversion and multimodal imaging for the first time. We demonstrate that the obtained CoS-PEG NSs show excellent compatibility and stability in water and various physiological solutions, and can be effectively internalized by cells, but exhibit a low cytotoxicity. The CoS-PEG NSs exhibit an efficient photothermal conversion capacity, benefited from the strong near-infrared (NIR) absorption, high photothermal conversion efficiency (∼33.0%), and excellent photothermal stability. Importantly, the highly effective photothermal killing effect on cancer cells after exposure to CoS-PEG NSs plus laser irradiation has been confirmed by both the standard Cell Counting Kit-8 and live-dead cell staining assays, revealing a concentration-dependent photothermal therapeutic effect. Moreover, utilizing the strong NIR absorbance together with the T2-MR contrast ability of the CoS-PEG NSs, a high-contrast triple-modal imaging, i.e., photoacoustic (PA), infrared thermal (IRT), and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, can be achieved, suggesting a great potential for multimodal imaging to provide comprehensive cancer diagnosis. Our work introduces the first bioapplication of the CoS-PEG nanomaterial as a potential theranostic nanoplatform and may promote further rational design of CoS-based nanostructures for precise/efficient cancer diagnosis and therapy.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Nos. 21473045 and 51401066), the Fundamental Research Funds from the Central University (PIRSOF HIT A201503), and the State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, the Harbin Institute of Technology (No. 2018DX04).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China

    Zhenglin Li, Zhuo Li & Miao Yu

  2. Condensed Matter Science and Technology Institute, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China

    Zhenglin Li & Ye Sun

  3. Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Aarhus, 8000, Denmark

    Zhenglin Li & Flemming Besenbacher

  4. Department of Neurological Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of the Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150001, China

    Lei Chen & Shaoshan Hu

  5. School of Life Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China

    Ying Hu

  6. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China

    Zhaohua Miao

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  1. Zhenglin Li
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  2. Zhuo Li
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  3. Lei Chen
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  4. Ying Hu
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  5. Shaoshan Hu
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  6. Zhaohua Miao
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  7. Ye Sun
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  8. Flemming Besenbacher
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  9. Miao Yu
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Correspondence to Ye Sun, Flemming Besenbacher or Miao Yu.

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12274_2017_1865_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Polyethylene glycol-modified cobalt sulfide nanosheets for high-performance photothermal conversion and photoacoustic/magnetic resonance imaging

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Li, Z., Li, Z., Chen, L. et al. Polyethylene glycol-modified cobalt sulfide nanosheets for high-performance photothermal conversion and photoacoustic/magnetic resonance imaging. Nano Res. 11, 2436–2449 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1865-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1865-z

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