Mimicking Drug-Substrate Interaction: A Smart Bioinspired Technology for the Fabrication of Theranostic Nanoprobes

Versatile bioinspired strategies are urgently needed to fabricate high-performance nanoprobes for biomedical application. Herein, a novel bioinspired technology of mimicking drug-substrate interaction is reported for the fabrication of high-performance nanoprobes. As a proof of concept, a multifunctional bovine serum albumin (BSA)-MnO2 nanoparticle-based nanoplatform is strategically engineered via mimicking the disinfection process of KMnO4 in an extremely facile way. The prepared BSA-MnO2 nanoparticles possess sub-10 nm and uniform size, excellent colloidal stability, and impressive T-1 relaxivity of 7.9 mm(-1) s(-1). The proposed nanoprobe could not only be employed as a high-performance magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agent for tumor and renal imaging but can also provide a platform for integrating therapeutic strategies toward tumors. The universal strategy could also be easily extended to the fabrication of other nanoprobes for MR imaging in vivo using other bioactive proteins including ovalbumin and transferrin. This work will open a new way for the development of biomaterials in biomedicine applications.