Potential of a sonochemical approach to generate MRI-PPT theranostic agents for breast cancer.

The production of nanomaterials integrating diagnostic and therapeutic roles within one nanoplatform is important for medical applications. Such theranostics nanoplatforms could provide information on imaging, accurate diagnosis and, at the same time, could eradicate cancer cells. FeO@Au core@shell nanoparticles (FeO@AuNPs) have gained broad attention due to their unique innovations in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and photothermal therapy (PTT). Seed-mediated growth procedures were used to produce the FeO@AuNPs. In these processes, complicated surface modifications, resulted in unsatisfactory properties. This work used the ability of the sonochemical approach to synthesize highly efficient theranostics agent FeO@AuNPs with a size of approximately 22 nm in 5 min. The inner core of FeO acts as an MRI agent, whereas the photothermal effect stands accomplished by near-infrared absorption of the gold shell (Au shell), which results in the eradication of cancer cells. We have shown that FeO@AuNPs have great biocompatibility and no major cytotoxicity has been identified. Relaxivity value (r) of synthesized FeO@Au NPs, measured at 233 mMs, is significantly higher than those reported previously. The as-synthesized NPs have shown substantial photothermal ablation ability on MCF-7 in vitro under near-infrared laser irradiation. Consequently, FeO@AuNPs synthesized in this study have great potential as an ideal candidate for MR imaging and PTT.