An NIR-II/MR dual modal nanoprobe for liver cancer imaging

• Published in: Nanoscale 2020-06, Vol.12 (21), p.1151-11517
• Main Authors: Ren, Ying, He, Shuqing, Huttad, Lakshmi, Chua, Mei-Sze, So, Samuel K, Guo, Qiyong, Cheng, Zhen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular - diagnostic imaging; Cell Line, Tumor; Contrast agents; Contrast Media - chemistry; Contrast Media - therapeutic use; Fluorescence; Fluorides - chemistry; Fluorides - therapeutic use; Gadolinium; Gadolinium - chemistry; Gadolinium - therapeutic use; Humans; Infrared imaging; Lesions; Liposomes - chemistry; Liposomes - therapeutic use; Liver; Liver cancer; Liver Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - instrumentation; Medical imaging; Mice; Nanoparticles; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Nanoparticles - therapeutic use; Near infrared radiation; NIH 3T3 Cells; Optical Imaging - instrumentation; Phantoms, Imaging; Rare earth elements; Xenotransplantation
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/d0nr00075b

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a malignancy of the liver worldwide and surgical resection remains the most effective treatment. However, it is still a great challenge to locate small lesions and define the border of diffused HCC even with the help of preoperative imaging examination. Here, we reported a rare-earth-doped nanoparticle NaGdF 4 :Nd 5%@NaGdF 4 @Lips (named Gd-REs@Lips), which simultaneously performed powerful functions in both magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and second near-infrared fluorescence window imaging (NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm). Imaging studies on orthotopic models with xenografts established from HCC patients indicated that Gd-REs@Lips efficiently worked as a T 2 -weighted imaging contrast agent to increase the signal intensity difference between liver cancer tissues and surrounding normal liver tissues on MRI, and it can also serve as a negative NIR-II imaging contrast enabling the precise detection of liver cancer. More importantly, benefiting from the high sensitivity of NIR-II imaging, Gd-REs@Lips allowed the visualization of tiny metastasis lesions (2 mm) on the liver surface. It is expected that the dual NIR-II/MRI modal nanoprobe developed holds high potential to fill the gap between the preoperative imaging detection of cancer lesions and intra-operative guidance, and it further brings new opportunities to address HCC-related medical challenges. We developed a dual-modality nanoprobe that can serve as a negative contrast agent for both MRI and NIR-II imaging of hepatocellular carcinoma.