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. 2021 Aug 19;11(8):2107.
doi: 10.3390/nano11082107.

Synthesis of Biomimetic Melanin-Like Multifunctional Nanoparticles for pH Responsive Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Photothermal Therapy

Jing Qu  1 , Devin Guillory  1 , Pohlee Cheah  1 , Bin Tian  1 , Jie Zheng  2 , Yongjian Liu  2 , Courtney Cates  3 , Amol V Janorkar  3 , Yongfeng Zhao  1
Affiliations

Synthesis of Biomimetic Melanin-Like Multifunctional Nanoparticles for pH Responsive Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Photothermal Therapy

Jing Qu et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

The design and development of multifunctional nanoparticles have attracted great interest in biomedical research. This study aims to prepare pH-responsive melanin-like nanoparticles for T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and photothermal therapy. The new multifunctional nanoparticles (amino-Fe-PDANPs) are synthesized by copolymerization of dopamine and its derivative amino-N-[2-(diethylamino) ethyl]-3,4-dihydroxy-benzenepropanamide (N-Dopa) at room temperature. The size of nanoparticles can be controlled by NaOH concentration. The incorporation of N-Dopa is characterized by NMR and FT-IR. From transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the nanoparticles exhibit excellent dispersion stability in water and are spherical in shape. The MRI measurement has demonstrated that amino-Fe-PDANPs have a significant signal enhancement in responding to the acidic solution. Confirmed by the photothermal study, the nanoparticles exhibit a high photothermal conversion efficiency. The melanin-like multifunctional nanoparticles integrate both diagnosis and therapeutic functionalities, indicating the potential for theranostic application.

Keywords: MR imaging; pH-responsive materials; photothermal effect; polydopamine nanoparticles.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The synthetic process and pH-responsive properties of the amino-Fe-PDANPS.
Figure 2
Figure 2
TEM images and nanoparticle size distribution histograms (insets) of (a) PDANPs, (b) amino-PDANPs, and (c) amino-Fe-PDANPs; (d) SEM image of amino-Fe-PDANPs.
Figure 3
Figure 3
1H-NMR spectra of (a) dopamine, (b) PDANPs, (c) N-Dopa and (d) N-Dopa copolymerized polydopamine nanoparticles (amino-Fe-PDANPs).
Figure 4
Figure 4
FTIR spectra of N-Dopa, PDANPS and amino-Fe-PDANPS.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The plots of 1/T1 as a function of the molar concentration of Fe3+ in the solution under pH 6.5 and pH 7.5 for (a) the amino-Fe-PDANPs and (b) Fe-PDANPs; T1-weighted MRI phantom results from (c) amino-Fe-PDANPS and (d) Fe-PDANPS as a function of the molar concentration of Fe3+ in the solution under different pH values. Water is the control group.
Figure 6
Figure 6
(a) UV–vis absorption spectra of Dopamine, N-Dopa, PDANPS and amino-Fe-PDANPS, the concentrations are 1 mg mL−1; (b) Temperature elevation of water and amino-Fe-PDANPS aqueous solutions with different concentrations over the irradiation time; (c) The repeated photothermal response of the amino-Fe-PDANPS aqueous solution.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The cell viability of 3T3-L1 cells incubated with different concentrations of amino-Fe-PDANPs for 24 h.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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