Issue 24, 2017

Microemulsion-made gadolinium carbonate hollow nanospheres showing magnetothermal heating and drug release

Abstract

Gadolinium carbonate (Gd2(CO3)3) hollow nanospheres and their suitability for drug transport and magnetothermally-induced drug release are presented. The hollow nanospheres are prepared via a microemulsion-based synthesis using tris(tetramethylcyclopentadienyl)gadolinium(III) and CO2 as the starting materials. Size, structure and composition of the as-prepared Gd2(CO3)3 hollow nanospheres are comprehensively validated by several independent analytical methods (HRTEM, HAADF-STEM, DLS, EDXS, XRD, FT-IR, DTA-TG). Accordingly, they exhibit an outer diameter of 26 ± 4 nm, an inner cavity of 7 ± 2 nm, and a wall thickness of 9 ± 3 nm. As a conceptual study, the nanocontainer-functionality of the Gd2(CO3)3 hollow nanospheres is validated upon filling with the anti-cancerogenic agent doxorubicin (DOX), which is straightforward via the microemulsion (ME) strategy. The resulting DOX@Gd2(CO3)3 nanocontainers provide the option of multimodal imaging including optical and magnetic resonance imaging (OI, MRI) as well as magnetothermal heating and drug release. As a proof-of-concept, we could already prove the intrinsic DOX-based fluorescence, a low systemic toxicity according to in vitro studies as well as the magnetothermal effect and a magnetothermally-induced DOX release. In particular, the latter is new for Gd-containing nanoparticles and highly promising in view of theranostic nanocontainers and synergistic physical and chemical tumor treatment.

Graphical abstract: Microemulsion-made gadolinium carbonate hollow nanospheres showing magnetothermal heating and drug release

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 Mar 2017
Accepted
20 May 2017
First published
23 May 2017

Nanoscale, 2017,9, 8362-8372

Microemulsion-made gadolinium carbonate hollow nanospheres showing magnetothermal heating and drug release

J. Jung-König, M. Sanhaji, R. Popescu, C. Seidl, E. Zittel, U. Schepers, D. Gerthsen, I. Hilger and C. Feldmann, Nanoscale, 2017, 9, 8362 DOI: 10.1039/C7NR01784G

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