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A novel bi-modal probe based on BaHoF5 and Cu-doped QDs with enhanced CT contrast efficiency and fluorescent brightness for tumor-targeting imaging

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Abstract

In this work, a novel bi-modal imaging probe with enhanced CT contrast efficiency and FL brightness was constructed, in which the combination of a binary CT contrast agent BaHoF5 and Cu-doped QDs served as a vehicle; hyaluronic acid (HA) was employed as a tumor-targeting ligand. With its CT contrast efficiency about 2.1- and 3.9-fold higher than PEG-BaHoF5 and Iohexol, the CT contrast efficiency and the fluorescent brightness of the bi-modal probe were both enhanced. Likewise, its fluorescent brightness is almost 6-fold brighter after Cu-doped QDs loading. The most important contribution of this work lies on the proposed strategy. The inherent contradiction of the imaging sensitivity of CT and FL imaging is well balanced and a great CT/FL bi-modal imaging performance is simultaneously obtained even at low concentration (400 μg/mL) of the probe, which was superior to the previous CT/FL bi-modal probes. Moreover, since BaHoF5 as a binary CT contrast agent was introduced instead of conventional Au and Bi2S3, the CT/FL bi-modal probe would be more suitable for different patients under different operation voltages. In addition, the in vitro tumor cell imaging also demonstrated a good photo-stability, FL brightness, and tumor-targeting capability of the probe, indicating its great potential in practical bi-modal imaging for further tumor diagnosis and therapy.

A novel bi-modal imaging probe with enhanced CT contrast efficiency and FL brightness was fabricated, in which its CT contrast efficiency was about 2.1- and 3.9-fold higher than PEG-BaHoF5 and Iohexol, respectively, and its fluorescent brightness almost 6-fold brighter after Cu-doped QDs loading.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Li Chen (Analytical & Testing Center, Sichuan University) for her help with CT imaging measurements.

Funding

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.21575091) and the Ministry of Education of China through the 111 Project (B17030).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Analytical & Testing Center, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China

    Xiaoke Zheng, Chenghui Li, Yaqin He, Lan Wu & Xiandeng Hou

  2. Analytical & Testing Center, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China

    Xiaoke Zheng

  3. College of Chemistry and Key Lab of Green Chemistry and Technology of MOE, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China

    Xiandeng Hou

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  1. Xiaoke Zheng
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Correspondence to Lan Wu.

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Zheng, X., Li, C., He, Y. et al. A novel bi-modal probe based on BaHoF5 and Cu-doped QDs with enhanced CT contrast efficiency and fluorescent brightness for tumor-targeting imaging. Microchim Acta 187, 261 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-020-04240-8

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