Biomineralization-Derived Gadolinium Nanoparticles for Dual-Modal 1H/19F MRI-Guided Photodynamic Tumor Therapy

The integration of conventional 1H MRI with heteronuclear 19F MRI enables the concurrent acquisition of complementary anatomical and molecular imaging information using a single instrument. Here, we report a T1-T2 dual-modal MRI platform based on gadolinium-albumin (Gd-BSA) nanostructures synthesized through a biomimetic mineralization strategy. To endow multifunctionality, perfluoropentaphenyl-15-crown-5 ether (PFCE) and the photosensitizer IR780 were coencapsulated, yielding the theranostic probe IR780@PFCE@Gd-BSA (IPGB). IPGB exhibited strong 19F MRI signals and T1-T2 contrast enhancement on clinical and preclinical MRI systems (1.5, 3.0, and 9.4 T), confirming its potential for 1H/19F multimodal imaging. Beyond imaging, IPGB exhibited superior photodynamic therapy (PDT) efficacy compared with free IR780. In vivo, IPGB achieved passive tumor accumulation with prolonged retention, enabled high-resolution multimodal MRI, and significantly suppressed breast tumor growth after PDT. Collectively, these results highlight IPGB as a viable multifunctional nanoplatform for cancer diagnosis, real-time multimodal imaging, and image-guided therapy.