Multifunctional Transferrin Encapsulated GdF<sub>3</sub> Nanoparticles for Sentinel Lymph Node and Tumor Imaging
Xudong Shi, Kai Gao, Shaoqing Xiong, Ran Gao
Abstract
The transferrin encapsulated GdF3 nanoparticles have been fabricated via biomineralization method. The obtained GdF3@Tf NPs show an attractive T2MRI and CT enhancement effect. Furthermore, PET and NIR imaging capacity are integrated into nanoparticles through conjugating with radionuclide 64Cu and fluorescent dye Cy7. 64Cu-GdF3@Tf-Cy7 NPs are developed and applied in small animal multimodal imaging in vivo. Compared with the previous multimodal imaging agents, 64Cu-GdF3@Tf-Cy7 NPs enable not only precise sentinel lymph node (SLN) identification, but specific imaging for transferrin receptor overexpressed colorectal tumor in vivo. The results reveal that 64Cu-GdF3@Tf-Cy7 NPs are potential and efficient multimodal imaging agents for SLN and tumor preclinical imaging.