Graphene-based Magnetic Plasmonic Nanocomposite For Dual Bioimaging And Photothermal Therapy

In recent years, graphene and graphene-based nanocomposites owning to theirhighly enriched physical and chemical properties have been widely explored forapplications in many different fields including biomedicine. In the present work, wedecorate graphene oxide (GO) by both iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) and gold,forming a multi-functional magnetic&plasmonic GO-IONP-Au nanocomposite withstrong superparamagnetism and significantly enhanced optical absorbance in thenear-infrared (NIR) region. We then coat the nanocomposite with polyethylene glycol(PEG), obtaining GO-IONP-Au-PEG with high stability in physiological environmentsand no significant in vitro toxicity. Remarkably enhanced photothermal cancer ablationeffect using GO-IONP-Au-PEG is realized in comparison to PEGylated GO used inour earlier studies, as demonstrated in both in vitro cell tests and in vivo animalexperiments. Moreover, the IONP and Au compartments in the GO-IONP-Au-PEGnanocomposite could be further taken advantages for magnetic resonance (MR) andX-ray dual-modal imaging. Our work shows the promise of using graphene-basedmultifunctional nanocomposite as cancer theranostics.