It is becoming more and more important to effectively integrate multiple complementary diagnostic imaging and synergistic
therapies into a nano-platform, but it is still challenging. Here, we used
bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a template to prepare ultra-small Ag/Gd2O3 (Ag/
Gd@BSA) hybrid nanoparticles with high water dispersion by a biomineralization strategy for magnetic resonance (MR)/computed tomography (CT)/photoacoustic (PA) imaging-guided
photothermal therapy (PTT). Compared with commercial MR and CT
contrast agents, we showed that these well-characterized BSA-templated nanotheranostics possessed higher r1 relaxivity (5.84 mM-1 s-1) and HU values. In addition, these nanotheranostics have an excellent NIR absorption feature and outstanding photothermal conversion efficiency (47.4%) in the
solution phase. The in vivo imaging experiment demonstrated that the Ag/
Gd@BSA hybrid nanoparticles could serve as tri-modality imaging
contrast agents to enable precise diagnosis of
tumors. Meanwhile, it was also revealed that Ag/
Gd@BSA had ability to be an ideal nanotherapeutic agent to achieve a satisfactory
tumor treatment effect through PTT. Also, we showed the good biocompatibility of Ag/
Gd@BSA nanoparticles. Overall, these results indicated that Ag/
Gd@BSA was an effective nanotheranostic, which could accurately identify
tumor sites and realize complete
tumor elimination, having great potential in clinical transformation.