Gold–silica quantum rattles for multimodal imaging and therapy

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Abstract
Significance: Therapeutic and diagnostic nanoparticles combine multiple functionalities to improve efficacy of treatment but often require assembling complex systems at the expense of overall performance. Here we present a simple strategy to synthesize a hybrid, rattle-like, gold–silica nanoparticle that very efficiently combines therapy and imaging in an animal model. The nanoparticle design is uniquely centered on enabling the use of gold quantum dots (<2 nm) in biological systems. The resulting nanoparticles are highly biocompatible and display emergent photonic and magnetic properties matching and in some instances outperforming state-of-the-art nanotechnology-based medical agents for each of the functionalities investigated, promising a tighter integration between imaging and therapy.

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