Application of 〖Fe〗_3 O_4-Au hybrid nanoparticles for multimodal Computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging and photothermal cancer therapy

Application of 〖Fe〗_3 O_4-Au hybrid nanoparticles for multimodal Computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging and photothermal cancer therapy
Nasim jamshidi,^1,* samad hasani,² ali ghafari,³
1. M.Sc. of Medical Imaging, Radiology Department, Paramedical Faculty, Tabriz University of Medical Science, Tabriz, Iran
2. Medical Physics and biomedical engineering Department, Medical Faculty, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
3. Medical Physics and biomedical engineering Department, Medical Faculty, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
Introduction: Although cancer treatment has made great strides in the last two decades, their performance has not been satisfactory for reasons such as their ineffectiveness against metastatic diseases. Among the various types of cancer treatments, photothermal therapy (PTT) is widely used as a non-invasive method due to light-induced heating and ablation of cancer cells without damaging the surrounding normal tissues. In addition, the survival rate of cancerous patients depends on the stage of diseases. Recently, theranostics, have integrated diagnostic and therapeutic methods into a single platform to optimize cancer treatment. In this review, we investigated the application of iron oxide/gold(〖Fe〗_3 O_4-Au) hybrid nanoparticles(NPs) as dual-mode MR/CT imaging agents and simultaneously photothermal therapy of cancer cells.
Methods: The keywords of “〖Fe〗_3 O_4-Au nanoparticles”, “CT”, “photothermal therapy” and “MRI” were entered in the scientific databases of PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct and google scholar. 10 full relevant articles were extracted and reviewed.
Results: 〖Fe〗_3 O_4 NPs are used as a contrast agent in MR imaging due to the T2 shortening effect. Moreover Au NPs are coated on the surface of 〖Fe〗_3 O_4 NPs to improve chemical stability and biocompatibility. Studies have shown that gold nanoparticles are used as a suitable agent for CT imaging and PTT of tumors because of their high X-ray attenuation properties and near-infrared absorption (NIR) feature. The soft tissue contrast of CT imaging is lower than that of MR imaging while the spatial resolution of MR imaging is lower than that of CT imaging. Therefore, combining different diagnostic methods in single nanoparticle leads to an accurate diagnosis of the disease and eliminates the defects in one imaging modality. In studies the 〖Fe〗_3 O_4-Au NPs have shown a relatively high r2 relaxivity 136.4 mM/s (1.5T, 14nm), 245.12 mM/s (3T, 20nm) and also good X-ray attenuation property. In addition the 〖Fe〗_3 O_4-Au dendrimer stabilized nanoflowers displayed desirable photothermal conversion efficiency (82.7%) and excellent NIR absorption features.
Conclusion: From a review of studies, it can be concluded that iron oxide/gold hybrid nanoparticles can be used as suitable theranostic nanoprobe for multimodal Computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent and photothermal therapy of tumors because of their unique features.
Keywords: 〖Fe〗_3 O_4/Au nanoparticles, MRI, CT, photothermal therapy and cancer