Simultaneous multimodal imaging and photothermal therapy via renal-clearable manganese-doped copper sulfide nanodots

Abstract Ultrasmall sized renal clearable nanoparticles are promising nanomaterials for cancer diagnostic and therapeutic treatments owing to their efficient clearance characteristics and feasible therapeutic effects. However, to integrate multifunction and keep ultrasmall size ( 2+ (Mn 2+ ) and 68 gallium 3+ (Ga 3+ ) into the matrix of copper sulfide (CuS) nanodots (NDs) using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as the synthetic template. The resulting Mn/ 68 Ga-CuS@BSA nanodots proved to be an excellent contrast agent for magnetic resonance (MR), positron emission tomography (PET), and photoacoustic (PAT) imaging. All three imaging modalities confirmed that Mn/Ga-CuS@BSA NDs could be efficiently cleared via the renal-urinary route of intravenous injection, therefore effectively minimized its toxicity to non-tumor organs. In addition, Mn/ 68 Ga-CuS@BSA NDs functioned as a potent mediator for the near-infrared (NIR) laser-induced photothermal therapy (PTT), and significantly suppressed tumor growth in the SKOV-3 ovarian tumor model. Our results demonstrated that renal clearable inorganic nanoparticles with multiple imaging and therapeutic capabilities are robust platforms to battle cancer.