Advancedbiocompatibleandrobustplatformsequippedwithdiversepropertiesarehighlyrequiredinbiomedicalimagingapplicationsfortheearlydetectionofatheroscleroticvasculardiseaseandcancers.Designingnanohybridscomposedofnoblemetalsandfluorescentmaterialsisanewwaytoperformmultimodalimagingtoovercomethelimitationsofsingle-modalitycounterparts.Herein,weproposethenoveldesignofamultimodalcontrastagent;namely,anenhancednanohybridcomprisinggoldnanorods(GNRs)andcarbondots(CDs)withsilica(SiO2)asabridge.Thenanohybrid(GNR@SiO2@CD)constructionisbasedoncovalentbondingbetweenSiO2andthesilane-functionalizedCDs,whichlinkstheGNRswiththeCDstoformtypicalcore–shellunits.ThenovelstructurenotonlyretainsandevenhighlyimprovestheopticalpropertiesoftheGNRsandCDs,butalsopossessessuperiorimagingperformanceinbothdiffusionreflection(DR)andfluorescencelifetimeimagingmicroscopy(FLIM)measurementscomparedwithbareGNRsorfluorescencedyesandCDs.ThesuperiorbioimagingpropertiesoftheGNR@SiO2@CDnanohybridsweresuccessfullyexploitedforinvitroDRandFLIMmeasurementsofmacrophageswithintissue-likephantoms,pavingthewaytowardatheranosticcontrastagentforatherosclerosisandcancer.

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AcknowledgementsThisworkwassupportedbytheJointNSFC-ISFResearchProgram(No.51561145004),jointlyfundedbytheNationalNaturalScienceFoundationofChinaandtheIsraelScienceFoundation,andthePresident’sInternationalFellowshipInitiative,ChineseAcademyofSciences(No.PIFI2015VTB041).
AuthorinformationAffiliationsKeyLaboratoryofPhotochemicalConversionandOptoelectronicMaterials,TechnicalInstituteofPhysicsandChemistry,ChineseAcademyofSciences,Beijing,100190,ChinaXiaojingLiu, LutingLiu, XiujieHu, ShuyunZhou ZhengXieFacultyofEngineeringandInstituteofNanotechnologyandAdvancedMaterials,Bar-IlanUniversity,Ramat-Gan,52900,IsraelRinatAnkri DrorFixlerAuthorsXiaojingLiuViewauthorpublicationsYoucanalsosearchforthisauthorinPubMedGoogleScholarLutingLiuViewauthorpublicationsYoucanalsosearchforthisauthorinPubMedGoogleScholarXiujieHuViewauthorpublicationsYoucanalsosearchforthisauthorinPubMedGoogleScholarShuyunZhouViewauthorpublicationsYoucanalsosearchforthisauthorinPubMedGoogleScholarRinatAnkriViewauthorpublicationsYoucanalsosearchforthisauthorinPubMedGoogleScholarDrorFixlerViewauthorpublicationsYoucanalsosearchforthisauthorinPubMedGoogleScholarZhengXieViewauthorpublicationsYoucanalsosearchforthisauthorinPubMedGoogleScholarCorrespondingauthorsCorrespondencetoDrorFixlerorZhengXie.
ElectronicsupplementarymaterialMultimodalbioimagingbasedongoldnanorodandcarbondotnanohybridsasanoveltoolforatherosclerosisdetectionRightsandpermissionsReprintsandPermissions
AboutthisarticleLiu,X.,Liu,L.,Hu,X.etal.Multimodalbioimagingbasedongoldnanorodandcarbondotnanohybridsasanoveltoolforatherosclerosisdetection.NanoRes.11,1262–1273(2018).https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1739-4
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Received:28February2017
Revised:22June2017
Accepted:24June2017
Published:02February2018
IssueDate:March2018
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1739-4
Keywordsnanohybridsmultimodalimagingcontrastagentdiffusionreflectionfluorescencelifetimeimagingatherosclerosismacrophages