The
combination of superparamagnetism and excitation independency
have been packed into carbon-decorated ferrite nanodots (CDs@MNFs)
for the introduction of a cost-effective and less-toxic multimodal
contrast agent in fluorescence/MR imaging to replace conventional
heavy metal containing Gd-DOTA. The label-free surface engineered
ferrite nanodots are capable of generating twin T1 (longitudinal)
and T2 (transverse) weighted magnetic resonance (MR) along with fluorescence
emission. The calculated molar relaxivities and molar radiant efficiency
obtained from in vitro and in vivo studies are the indication of its
multimodal efficacy in medical imaging compared to the conventional
contrast agents. The cellular internalization of nanodots was established
by confocal microscopy and flow cytometric assay, whereas the hemolysis
and cell viability assays support their appreciable toxicity. Furthermore,
the surface chemistry due to the presence of −COOH was utilized
to attach the anticancer agent, doxorubicin (−NH2) making it an external stimuli responsive drug delivery vehicle
for the treatment of cancer. Given the ease of fabrication, negligible
toxicity, and significant contrast enhancement with stimuli responsive
drug release kinetics CDs@MNFs prove to be a potential, cost-effective
multimodal imaging agent which could be used for theragnosis.
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