Precise diagnosis and monitoring of
cancer depend on the development of advanced technologies for in vivo imaging. Owing to the merits of outstanding spatial resolution and excellent soft-tissue contrast, the application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in biomedicine is of great importance. Herein,
Angiopep-2 (ANG), which can simultaneously help to cross the blood-brain barrier and target the
glioblastoma cells, was rationally combined with the 3.3 nm-sized ultra-small
iron oxide (Fe3O4) to construct high-performance MRI nanoprobes (Fe3O4-ANG NPs) for
glioblastoma diagnosis. The in vitro experiments show that the resultant Fe3O4-ANG NPs not only exhibit favorable relaxation properties and colloidal stability, but also have low toxicity and high specificity to
glioblastoma cells, which provide critical prerequisites for the in vivo
tumor imaging. Furthermore, in vivo imaging results show that the Fe3O4-ANG NPs exhibit good targeting ability toward subcutaneous and orthotopic
glioblastoma model, manifesting an obvious contrast enhancement effect on the T1-weighted MR image, which demonstrates promising potential in clinical application.