Magnetically Guided Theranostics: Optimizing Magnetic Resonance Imaging with Sandwich-Like Kaolinite-Based Iron/Platinum Nanoparticles for Magnetic Fluid Hyperthermia and Chemotherapy

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common type of liver cancer that can be diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). If diagnosing HCC by basic MRI is difficult, then doctors use T-1-weighted or T-2-weighted imaging with a contrast agent that has long-term retention in the liver, such as Fe3O4 or FePt, to aid in MRI diagnosis. One challenging goal of cancer prevention is developing a method that can further treat or inhibit HCC cells at the time of diagnosis. Functionalized porous kaolinite can serve not only as a drug delivery system for treating cancer cells but also as a scaffold to carry FePt nanoparticles (FePt NPs) and drugs such as doxorubicin (Dox). FePt NPs combined with kaolinite modified with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) can form FePt@Kao nanocomposites. Multifunctional FePt@Kao can serve as a magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH) agent that can also be used to simultaneously visualize and treat HCC cancer cells. After being loaded with the chemotherapeutic drug Dox, FePt@Kao-Dox can provide both MFH treatment and chemotherapy. From the systematic analysis results, we demonstrated that this functionalized FePt@Kao-Dox nanocomposite can be successfully used as a platform to integrate MRI, magnetically guided targeting, and therapeutic treatment into a multifunctional drug delivery system.