Magneto-Plasmonic Au-Fe alloy nanoparticles designed for multimodal SERS-MRI-CT imaging

Diagnostic approaches based on multimodal imaging are needed for accurate selection of the therapeutic regimens in several diseases, although the dose ofadministered contrast drugs must be reduced to minimize side effects. Therefore, big efforts are deployed in the development of multimodal contrast agents (MCAs) that permit the complementary visualization of the same diseased area with different sensitivity and different spatial resolution by applying multiple diagnostic techniques. Ideally, MCAs should also allow imaging of diseased tissues with high spatial resolution during surgical interventions. Here we report on a new system based on multifunctional Au-Fe alloy nanoparticles designed to satisfy the main requirements of an ideal MCA and we describe their biocompatibility and imaging capability. Our MCAs show easy and versatile surface conjugation with thiolated molecules, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed x-ray tomography (CT) signals for anatomical and physiological information (i.e. diagnostic and prognostic imaging), large Raman signals amplified by surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for high sensitivity and high resolution intrasurgical imaging, biocompatibility, exploitability for in vivo use and capability of selective accumulation in tumors by enhanced permeability and retention effect. Taken together, our results show that Au-Fe nanoalloys are excellent candidates as multimodal MRI-CT-SERS imaging agents.