Cancer cell detection and imaging: MRI-SERS bimodal splat-shaped Fe3O4/Au nanocomposites

The development of multifunctional contrast agents contributes significant character in the diagnosis of cancer. However, still efforts are required to design and improve the biocompatibility of contrast agents for early detection of cancer. Herein, we synthesized splat shape Fe3O4/Au nanocomposites for multimode biomedical applications. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results showed that the splat-like Fe3O4/Au structure was in the range of 130 nm and homogeneously distributed in the aqueous medium. The nanocomposites were incubated with MCF-7 cells to investigate the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activities. The excellent T-2 MRI and enhanced SERS properties were obtained without any cytotoxicity. These results demonstrated that as-synthesized splat-shaped Fe3O4/Au nanocomposites may be a promising MRI/SERS dual probe for the tumor detection. (C) 2018 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.