Magnetic-NIR Persistent Luminescent Dual-Modal ZGOCS@MSNs@Gd₂O₃ Core-Shell Nanoprobes for in Vivo Imaging

Recently, Gd³⁺-based NIR persistent luminescence nanoparticles have been proposed as highly promising multimodal nanoprobes for full-scale visualization medical techniques in early diagnosis of cancer. However, they still face with some problems, such as hampering further functionalization for the loss of available surface, shortening plasma half-life of the probe caused by inevitable size increase, and reducing SNR because of significant persistent intensity loss. In this study, a novel core-shell structure Gd³⁺-based NIR persistent luminescence multimodal probe ZGOCS@MSNs@Gd₂O₃ for T₁-weighted MR imaging and NIR persistent luminescence imaging was successfully synthesized using MSNs as the reaction vessels for ZGOCS nanoparticles and the core for Gd₂O₃ shell. Compared with previously reported Gd³⁺-based NIR persistent luminescence-based multimodal nanoprobes, the as-prepared nanoparticles enable surface available, no persistent intensity loss and only a slight size increase. Moreover, this multifunctional nanoprobe not only retains excellent NIR persistent luminescence properties with rechargeable ability, but also possesses high longitudinal relaxivity via the Gd₂O₃ shell, positioning ZGOCS@MSNs@Gd₂O₃ as highly promising nanoprobe for future multimodal bioimaging.