Multifunctional nanoparticles, bearing low toxicity and
tumor-targeting properties, coupled with multifunctional diagnostic imaging and enhanced treatment efficacy, have drawn tremendous attention due to their enormous potential for medical applications. Herein, we report a new kind of biocompatible and
tumor-targeting magneto-
gold@fluorescent
polymer nanoparticle (MGFs-LyP-1), which is based on ultra-small magneto-
gold (Fe3O4-Au) nanoparticles and NIR emissive fluorescent
polymers by a
solvent-mediated method. This kind of nanoparticle could be taken up efficiently and simultaneously serve for in vivo
tumor targeting T1&T2-MRI/CT/near infrared (NIR) fluorescence bioimaging. Furthermore, the nanoparticles exhibit small size, higher
tumor targeting accumulation, excellent cytocompatibility for long-term tracking, and no disturbing cell proliferation and differentiation. Moreover, clear and convincing evidence proves that as-synthesized MGFs-LyP-1 could elicit genuine autophagy via inducing autophagosome formation, which offers a definite synergistic effect to enhance
cancer therapy with
doxorubicin (DOX) at a nontoxic concentration through enhancement of the autophagy flux. Meanwhile, the as-prepared nanoparticles could be rapidly cleared from mice without any obvious organ impairment. The results indeed reveal a promising prospect of an MGFs-LyP-1
contrast agent with low toxicity and high efficiency for promising application in biomedicine.