Biomineralization of Versatile CuS/Gd2O3 Hybrid Nanoparticles for MR Imaging and Antitumor Photothermal Chemotherapy

Graphical Versatile nanoparticle : A facile one-pot approach for the preparation of a versatile CuS/Gd 2 O 3 hybrid nanoparticle, which is used as a theranostic agent for magnetic resonance imaging and synergistic cancer therapy, has been developed. The versatile application of nanoparticles in integrating imaging and therapy has aroused extensive research interest in precision medicine. Of the various nanoparticles that have been studied, CuS has shown great potential in the construction of multifunctional agents, owing to its excellent photothermal heating properties. Herein, we report a facile one-pot biomineralization approach for the preparation of versatile bovine-serum-albumin-conjugated CuS/Gd 2 O 3 hybrid nanoparticles (BSA−CuS/Gd 2 O 3 HNPs), which simultaneously possessed strong longitudinal relaxivity, an outstanding photothermal effect, high drug-loading capacity, and pH/temperature-responsive drug release. The versatile nanoparticles were used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and antitumor photothermal chemotherapy, both in vitro and in vivo. In vivo MRI showed that the BSA−CuS/Gd 2 O 3 HNPs had a long circulation time and effective passive tumor-uptake ability. More importantly, combined in vitro and in vivo therapy demonstrated that drug-loaded BSA−CuS/Gd 2 O 3 HNPs offered outstanding synergistic therapeutic efficacy for tumor inhibition.