Folic acid-mediated hollow \(\text {Mn}_{3}\text {O}_{4}\) nanocomposites for in vivo MRI/FLI monitoring the metastasis of gastric cancer

Metastasis is one of the main factors leading to the high mortality rate of gastric cancer. The current monitoring methods are not able to accurately monitor gastric cancer metastasis.

In this paper, we constructed a new type of hollow \(\text {Mn}_{3}\text {O}_{4}\) ${\text{Mn}}_3{\text{O}}_4$ nanocomposites, \(\text {Mn}_{3}\text {O}_{4}\) ${\text{Mn}}_3{\text{O}}_4$ @HMSN-Cy7.5-FA, which had a size distribution of approximately 100 nm and showed good stability in different liquid environments. The in vitro magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results show that the nanocomposite has good response effects to the acidic microenvironment of tumors. The acidic environment can significantly enhance the contrast of \({\text {T}_{1}}\) ${\text{T}}_1$ -weighted MRI. The cellular uptake and endocytosis results show that the nanocomposite has good targeting capabilities and exhibits good biosafety, both in vivo and in vitro. In a gastric cancer nude mouse orthotopic metastatic tumor model, with bioluminescence imaging’s tumor location information, we realized in vivo MRI/fluorescence imaging (FLI) guided precise monitoring of the gastric cancer orthotopic and metastatic tumors with this nanocomposite.

This report demonstrates that \(\text {Mn}_{3}\text {O}_{4}\) ${\text{Mn}}_3{\text{O}}_4$ @HMSN-Cy7.5-FA nanocomposites is a promising nano-diagnostic platform for the precision diagnosis and therapy of gastric cancer metastasis in the future.

In vivo MRI/FLI imaging results show that the nanocomposites can achieve accurate monitoring of gastric cancer tumors in situ and metastases. BLI’s tumor location information further supports the good accuracy of MRI/FLI dual-modality imaging. The above results show that the MHCF NPs can serve as a good nano-diagnostic platform for precise in vivo monitoring of tumor metastasis. This nanocomposite provides more possibilities for the diagnosis and therapy of gastric cancer metastases.