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Facile synthesis of multifunctional nanocomposites with good compatibility for efficient dual-mode T1 and T2 magnetic resonance imaging and gene delivery

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Abstract

Nanostructure-based materials for multimodal imaging have attracted great attentions. Here we report a new formulation integrated gadolinium (Gd) and magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles as magnetic resonance (MR) imaging contrast agent at both T1 mode and T2 mode. Polyetherimide coated iron oxide (Fe3O4@PEI) nanoparticles were first synthesized and then conjugated to diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA), which further chelated with Gd3+ ions (Fe3O4@PEI@DTPA-Gd). Both phantom and MR studies showed Fe3O4@PEI@DTPA-Gd nanocomposites could be applied in two modes (r1 = 4.7 mM−1 s−1, r2 = 131.82 mM−1 s−1). MTT and fluorescent staining results also suggested that the nanocomposites had good biocompatibility. Besides, Fe3O4@PEI@DTPA-Gd nanocomposites exhibited high entrap efficiency when the mass ratio of nanocomposites to DNA was up to 30:1. The in vitro gene transfection ability was also evidenced. Therefore, Fe3O4@PEI@DTPA-Gd nanocomposites can be employed as a potential candidate for MRI guided clinical diagnosis and gene delivery guided therapy.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81673438 and 51302004) and Scientific Research Foundation of the Institute for Translational Medicine of Anhui Province (SRFITMAP, 2017zhyx34).

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Author notes

  1. Hui-Hui Xiang, Meng-Meng Song are contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The First Affiliated Hospital, Anhui Medical University, 218 Jixi Road, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, China

    Hui-Hui Xiang, Meng-Yu Fei & Yong-Qiang Yu

  2. School of Basic Medical Sciences, Anhui Medical University, 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China

    Meng-Meng Song, Run-Jie Wang, Xiao-Fang Tao & Yu-Xian Shen

  3. Biopharmaceutical Institute, Anhui Medical University, 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China

    Meng-Meng Song, Run-Jie Wang, Xiao-Fang Tao & Yu-Xian Shen

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  1. Hui-Hui Xiang
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Fig. S1:

Raman spectra of Fe3O4@PEI@DTPA-Gd nanocomposites Fig. S2: Fluorescence images of 293 cells transfected with Fe3O4@PEI@DTPA-Gd nanocomposites carrying GFP gene b Fluorescence images of SH-SY5Y cells and HepG2 cells stained with Hoechst 33342 and PI after incubated with Fe3O4@PEI@DTPA-Gd nanocomposites for 72 h

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Xiang, HH., Song, MM., Fei, MY. et al. Facile synthesis of multifunctional nanocomposites with good compatibility for efficient dual-mode T1 and T2 magnetic resonance imaging and gene delivery. Appl Nanosci 9, 2019–2030 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-019-01042-0

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