Press releases
Please quote Nature Materials as the source of these items.
November 2006
Nanomaterials for imaging and therapy
Imaging blood vessels using magnetic resonance and destroying malignant cells by near-infrared irradiation may both be possible in one integrated system, which is described in the December issue of Nature Materials.
The tiny system, produced by Hongjie Dai and colleagues, is a nanoparticle designed specifically with this dual function and with the additional advantage of being water soluble and non-toxic. It is made of an iron-cobalt alloy surrounded by a thin shell of graphitic carbon. The iron-cobalt core has superior magnetic properties that provide high magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast at lower doses than those required with conventional gadolinium contrast agents.
The graphitic shell has more than one purpose. It protects the iron-cobalt core, making it more stable and robust. Its surface can be functionalized so as to make the nanocrystal soluble in aqueous body fluids and allow a longer timespan to carry out imaging. Moreover, it absorbs near-infrared light. The authors argue that this phenomenon could be harnessed to generate localized heat and trigger a therapeutic effect, such as the destruction of cancer cells.
FeCo/graphitic-shell nanocrystals as advanced magnetic-resonance-imaging and near-infrared agents pp971-976
Won Seok Seo, Jin Hyung Lee, Xiaoming Sun, Yoriyasu Suzuki, David Mann, Zhuang Liu, Masahiro Terashima, Philip C. Yang, Michael V. McConnell, Dwight G. Nishimura and Hongjie Dai
Published online: 19 November 2006 | doi 10.1038/nmat1775
