High near-infrared absorbing CuFeS nanoparticles for dual-modal imaging and photothermal therapy

Multifunctional nanomaterials have shown excellent and promising properties for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Herein, we have developed iron doped copper sulfide (Cu 5 FeS 4 ) nanoparticles with a non-covalent polyethylene glycol (PEG) coating (Cu 5 FeS 4 -PEG) for tumor dual-modal imaging and photothermal therapy (PTT). The obtained Cu 5 FeS 4 -PEG nanoparticles with high near-infrared absorbance could be used for phototoacoustic (PA) imaging and PTT, whereas Fe 3+ doping offer the nanoparticles the additional property for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. As shown by PA imaging, Cu 5 FeS 4 -PEG exhibit a high tumor uptake ( ∼ 10% ID g −1 ) after intravenous injection. In vitro and in vivo cancer treatment further confirm that Cu 5 FeS 4 -PEG could act as a novel therapeutic agent for PTT of cancer cells. Our study further promotes the potential applications of multifunctional nanomaterials in a range of tumor diagnoses and treatments. In this work, PEG functionalized iron doped copper sulfide (Cu 5 FeS 4 -PEG) with excellent physiological stability against salts and serum is explored as an novel nano-therapeutic agent for PA and MRI imaging guided photothermal therapy.