Multiple valence states of Fe boosting SERS activity of Fe3O4 nanoparticles and enabling effective SERS-MRI bimodal cancer imaging

Jie Lin; Xuehua Ma; Anran Li; Ozioma Udochukwu Akakuru; Chunshu Pan; Meng He; Chenyang Yao; Wenzhi Ren; Yanying Li; Dinghu Zhang; Yi Cao; Tianxiang Chen; Aiguo Wu

Fundamental Research (Jul 2024)

Multiple valence states of Fe boosting SERS activity of Fe3O4 nanoparticles and enabling effective SERS-MRI bimodal cancer imaging

Jie Lin,
Xuehua Ma,
Anran Li,
Ozioma Udochukwu Akakuru,
Chunshu Pan,
Meng He,
Chenyang Yao,
Wenzhi Ren,
Yanying Li,
Dinghu Zhang,
Yi Cao,
Tianxiang Chen,
Aiguo Wu

Affiliations

Jie Lin: Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, Chinese Academy of Science Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, CAS, Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China; Corresponding authors.
Xuehua Ma: Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, Chinese Academy of Science Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, CAS, Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Anran Li: School of Engineering Medicine, Key Laboratory of Big Data-Based Precision Medicine (Beihang University), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Ozioma Udochukwu Akakuru: Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, Chinese Academy of Science Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, CAS, Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China
Chunshu Pan: Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, Chinese Academy of Science Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, CAS, Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China
Meng He: Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, Chinese Academy of Science Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, CAS, Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China
Chenyang Yao: Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, Chinese Academy of Science Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, CAS, Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China
Wenzhi Ren: Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, Chinese Academy of Science Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, CAS, Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China
Yanying Li: Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, Chinese Academy of Science Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, CAS, Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China
Dinghu Zhang: Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, Chinese Academy of Science Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, CAS, Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China
Yi Cao: Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, Chinese Academy of Science Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, CAS, Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China
Tianxiang Chen: Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, Chinese Academy of Science Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, CAS, Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China; Corresponding authors.
Aiguo Wu: Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, Chinese Academy of Science Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, CAS, Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China; Corresponding authors.

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 4, no. 4
pp. 858 – 867

Abstract

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Developing novel nanoparticle-based bioprobes utilized in clinical settings with imaging resolutions ranging from cell to tissue levels is a major challenge for tumor diagnosis and treatment. Herein, an optimized strategy for designing a Fe3O4-based bioprobe for dual-modal cancer imaging based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is introduced. Excellent SERS activity of ultrasmall Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) was discovered, and a 5 × 10−9 M limit of detection for crystal violet molecules was successfully obtained. The high-efficiency interfacial photon-induced charge transfer in Fe3O4 NPs was promoted by multiple electronic energy levels ascribed to the multiple valence states of Fe, which was observed using ultraviolet–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. Density functional theory calculations were utilized to reveal that the narrow band gap and high electron density of states of ultrasmall Fe3O4 NPs significantly boosted the vibronic coupling resonances in the SERS system upon illumination. The subtypes of cancer cells were accurately recognized via high-resolution SERS imaging in vitro using the prepared Fe3O4-based bioprobe with high sensitivity and good specificity. Notably, Fe3O4-based bioprobes simultaneously exhibited T1-weighted MRI contrast enhancement with an active targeting capability for tumors in vivo. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the use of pure semiconductor-based SERS-MRI dual-modal nanoprobes in tumor imaging in vivo and in vitro, which has been previously realized only using semiconductor–metal complex materials. The non-metallic materials with SERS–MRI dual-modal imaging established in this report are a promising cancer diagnostic platform, which not only showed excellent performance in early tumor diagnosis but also possesses great potential for image-guided tumor treatment.

Published in Fundamental Research

ISSN: 2667-3258 (Online)
Publisher: KeAi Communications Co. Ltd.
Country of publisher: China
LCC subjects: Science: Science (General)
Website: https://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/fundamental-research/

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