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Nano Research 2014, 7(11): 1581-1591 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-014-0518-8
Research Article | Issue | Published: 16 August 2014

Color-tunable Gd-Zn-Cu-In-S/ZnS quantum dots for dual modality magnetic resonance and fluorescence imaging

Show Author's Information Weisheng Guo1,2,§,  Weitao Yang1,§,  Yu Wang4,  Xiaolian Sun2,  Zhongyun Liu1,  Bingbo Zhang3( ),  Jin Chang1( ),  Xiaoyuan Chen2( )
Institute of NanobiotechnologySchool of Materials Science and EngineeringTianjin University and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composites and Functional MaterialsTianjin300072China
Laboratory of Molecular Imaging and NanomedicineNational Institute of Biomedical Imaging and BioengineeringNational Institutes of HealthBethesdaMD20892USA
Shanghai East HospitalThe Institute for Biomedical Engineering & Nano ScienceTongji University School of MedicineShanghai200120China
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Molecular Imaging and Functional ImagingDepartment of RadiologyZhongda HospitalMedical School of Southeast UniversityNanjing210009China

§These authors contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
magnetic resonance imaging, photoluminescence, CuInS2 quantum dot, multimodality imaging, gadolinium doped
Cite this article:
Guo W, Yang W, Wang Y, et al. Color-tunable Gd-Zn-Cu-In-S/ZnS quantum dots for dual modality magnetic resonance and fluorescence imaging. Nano Research, 2014, 7(11): 1581-1591. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-014-0518-8
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Inorganic nanoparticles have been introduced into biological systems as useful probes for in vitro diagnosis and in vivo imaging, due to their relatively small size and exceptional physical and chemical properties. A new kind of colortunable Gd-Zn-Cu-In-S/ZnS (GZCIS/ZnS) quantum dots (QDs) with stable crystal structure has been successfully synthesized and utilized for magnetic resonance (MR) and fluorescence dual modality imaging. This strategy allows successful fabrication of GZCIS/ZnS QDs by incorporating Gd into ZCIS/ZnS QDs to achieve great MR enhancement without compromising the fluorescence properties of the initial ZCIS/ZnS QDs. The as-prepared GZCIS/ZnS QDs show high T1 MR contrast as well as "color-tunable" photoluminescence (PL) in the range of 550–725 nm by adjusting the Zn/Cu feeding ratio with high PL quantum yield (QY). The GZCIS/ZnS QDs were transferred into water via a bovine serum albumin (BSA) coating strategy. The resulting Cd-free GZCIS/ZnS QDs reveal negligible cytotoxicity on both HeLa and A549 cells. Both fluorescence and MR imaging studies were successfully performed in vitro and in vivo. The results demonstrated that GZCIS/ZnS QDs could be a dual-modal contrast agent to simultaneously produce strong MR contrast enhancement as well as fluorescence emission for in vivo imaging.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Color-tunable Gd-Zn-Cu-In-S/ZnS quantum dots for dual modality magnetic resonance and fluorescence imaging

Show Author's information Weisheng Guo1,2,§, Weitao Yang1,§, Yu Wang4, Xiaolian Sun2, Zhongyun Liu1, Bingbo Zhang3( ), Jin Chang1( ), Xiaoyuan Chen2( )
Institute of NanobiotechnologySchool of Materials Science and EngineeringTianjin University and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composites and Functional MaterialsTianjin300072China
Laboratory of Molecular Imaging and NanomedicineNational Institute of Biomedical Imaging and BioengineeringNational Institutes of HealthBethesdaMD20892USA
Shanghai East HospitalThe Institute for Biomedical Engineering & Nano ScienceTongji University School of MedicineShanghai200120China
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Molecular Imaging and Functional ImagingDepartment of RadiologyZhongda HospitalMedical School of Southeast UniversityNanjing210009China

§These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Inorganic nanoparticles have been introduced into biological systems as useful probes for in vitro diagnosis and in vivo imaging, due to their relatively small size and exceptional physical and chemical properties. A new kind of colortunable Gd-Zn-Cu-In-S/ZnS (GZCIS/ZnS) quantum dots (QDs) with stable crystal structure has been successfully synthesized and utilized for magnetic resonance (MR) and fluorescence dual modality imaging. This strategy allows successful fabrication of GZCIS/ZnS QDs by incorporating Gd into ZCIS/ZnS QDs to achieve great MR enhancement without compromising the fluorescence properties of the initial ZCIS/ZnS QDs. The as-prepared GZCIS/ZnS QDs show high T1 MR contrast as well as "color-tunable" photoluminescence (PL) in the range of 550–725 nm by adjusting the Zn/Cu feeding ratio with high PL quantum yield (QY). The GZCIS/ZnS QDs were transferred into water via a bovine serum albumin (BSA) coating strategy. The resulting Cd-free GZCIS/ZnS QDs reveal negligible cytotoxicity on both HeLa and A549 cells. Both fluorescence and MR imaging studies were successfully performed in vitro and in vivo. The results demonstrated that GZCIS/ZnS QDs could be a dual-modal contrast agent to simultaneously produce strong MR contrast enhancement as well as fluorescence emission for in vivo imaging.

Keywords: magnetic resonance imaging, photoluminescence, CuInS2 quantum dot, multimodality imaging, gadolinium doped

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 22 January 2014
Revised: 14 June 2014
Accepted: 15 June 2014
Published: 16 August 2014
Issue date: November 2014

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the National High Technology Program of China (No. 2012AA022603), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51373117, 81171372, 81371596, and 81371618), the Key Project of Tianjin Nature Science Foundation (No. 13JCZDJC33200), the Doctoral Fund of Ministry of Education of China (No. 20120032110027), and the Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health. W. G. was funded in part by the China Scholarship Council (CSC).

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