A fluorescent, paramagnetic and PEGylated gold/silica nanoparticle for MRI, CT and fluorescence imaging

摘要

An important challenge in medical diagnostics is to design alla??ina??one contrast agents that can be detected with multiple techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Xa??ray computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission tomography (SPECT) or fluorescence imaging (FI). Although many dual labeled agents have been proposed, mainly for combined MRI/FI, constructs for three imaging modalities are scarce. Here gold/silica nanoparticles with a poly(ethylene glycol), paramagnetic and fluorescent lipid coating were synthesized, characterized and applied as trimodal contrast agents to allow for nanoparticlea??enhanced imaging of macrophage cells in vitro via MRI, CT and FI, and mice livers in vivo via MRI and CT. This agent can be a useful tool in a multitude of applications, including cell tracking and targeta??specific molecular imaging, and is a step in the direction of truly multia??modal imaging. Copyright ?? 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.