High-Performance T1–T2 Dual-Modal MRI Contrast Agents through Interface Engineering

Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) have been developed as contrast agents for T1- or T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on account of their excellent physicochemical and biological properties. However, general strategies to improve longitudinal relaxivity (r1) often decrease transverse relaxivity (r2), thus synchronously strengthening the T1 and T2 enhancement effect of IONPs remains a challenge. Here, we report interface regulation and size tailoring of a group of FePt@Fe3O4 core–shell nanoparticles (NPs), which possess high r1 and r2 relaxivities. The increase of r1 and r2 is due to the enhancement of the saturation magnetization (Ms), which is a result of the strengthened exchange coupling across the core–shell interface. In vivo subcutaneous tumor study and brain glioma imaging revealed that FePt@Fe3O4 NPs can serve as a favorable T1–T2 dual-modal contrast agent. We envision that the core–shell NPs, through interface engineering, have great potential in preclinical and clinical MRI applications.