Xu Yong-Qiang, Zang Liu-Yuan, Gao Hai-Yu, Peng Jin, Zheng Dong-Yun, Liu Chao, Liu Xiao-Jun, Cheng Dong-Bing, Zhu Chun-Nan
College of Biomedical Engineering, Hubei Key Laboratory of Medical Information Analysis and Tumor Diagnosis & Treatment, and Key Laboratory of Brain Cognitive Science (State Ethnic Affairs Commission), South-Central Minzu University, Wuhan 430074, China.
School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering & Life Science, Wuhan University of Technology, No. 122 Luoshi Road, Wuhan 430070, China.
Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces. 2023 Mar;223:113158. doi: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2023.113158. Epub 2023 Jan 20.
Gd-doped quantum dots (QDs) have been widely used as small-sized bifunctional contrast agents for fluorescence/magnetic resonance (FL/MR) dual-modality imaging. However, Gd doping will always compromise the FL of host QDs. Therefore, balancing the Gd doping and the optical properties of QDs is crucial for constructing high-performance bifunctional nanoprobes. Additionally, most paramagnetic QDs are synthesized in the organic phase and need to be transferred to the aqueous phase for bioimaging. Herein, ingeniously designed shell-doped Cu-In-S/ZnS:Gd QDs have been prepared in the aqueous phase. It has been demonstrated that isolating paramagnetic Gd from fluorescent Cu-In-S core via doping Gd into ZnS shell not only avoided the decrease of FL quantum yield (QY), but also ensured the water accessibility of paramagnetic Gd ions, by which the FL QY and r relaxivity of Cu-In-S/ZnS:Gd QDs achieved as much as 15.6% and 15.33 mM·s, respectively. These high-performance QDs with excellent stability, low biotoxicity, and good tumor permeability were successfully applied for in vivo tumor FL/MR dual-modality imaging, and have shown significant potential in the precision detection and diagnosis of diseases.
钆掺杂量子点（QDs）已被广泛用作荧光/磁共振（FL/MR）双模态成像的小型双功能造影剂。然而，钆掺杂总会损害主体量子点的荧光。因此，平衡钆掺杂与量子点的光学性质对于构建高性能双功能纳米探针至关重要。此外，大多数顺磁性量子点是在有机相中合成的，需要转移到水相中用于生物成像。在此，通过巧妙设计在水相中制备了壳层掺杂的Cu-In-S/ZnS:Gd量子点。结果表明，通过将钆掺杂到ZnS壳层中，将顺磁性钆与荧光Cu-In-S核分离，不仅避免了荧光量子产率（QY）的降低，还确保了顺磁性钆离子的水可及性，由此Cu-In-S/ZnS:Gd量子点的荧光量子产率和r弛豫率分别达到了15.6%和15.33 mM·s。这些具有优异稳定性、低生物毒性和良好肿瘤渗透性的高性能量子点成功应用于体内肿瘤FL/MR双模态成像，并在疾病的精确检测和诊断中显示出巨大潜力。
