Dopamine-modified nanospheres of oxalic-bimetal for T1/T2 dual-modal MRI and photothermal tumour treatment

Integrated platforms combining imaging diagnosis and therapy have attracted considerable attention. In this work, a novel nanoplatform-dopamine-modified oxalic-bimetal nanospheres (CuFe2(C2O4)(3)@PDA)-was facilely prepared in aqueous solution at room temperature and showed superior biocompatibility due to the polydopamine-wrapped surface. In particular, CuFe2(C2O4)(3)@PDA exhibited excellent dual-modal T-1- and T-2-weighted contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as well as high photothermal conversion efficiency. An animal tumour model, glioma-bearing mice, was examined for efficient T-1/T-2 MRI by CuFe2(C2O4)(3)@PDA. Moreover, the tumour location with CuFe2(C2O4)(3)@PDA injection was completely ablated by photothermal therapy with 808 nm irradiation. This work showed that the prepared CuFe2(C2O4)(3)@PDA nanospheres are promising as a multifunctional nano-diagnostic and therapeutic drug.