Multifunctional gadofulleride nanoprobe for magnetic resonance imaging/fluorescent dual modality molecular imaging and free radical scavenging

Strategic design of gadofullerene derivatives is critical to integrate multifunctionality into one entity. Herein, an easy method was developed to fabricate a new type of magnetic resonance imaging/fluorescent integrative molecular imaging probe based on Gd@C82. The functionalized gadofulleride Gd@C82O∼14(OH)∼14(NH2)∼6 not only exhibits an order of magnitude larger relaxivity (47.0 ± 0.8 mM−1 s−1 at 0.5 T) than commercially used gadopentetic acid (4.5 ± 0.1 mM−1 s−1) under the same condition and multi-wavelength emission features derived from the multi-wavelength excitation for dual-modality diagnosis, but also highly efficient scavenging capability toward hydroxyl radicals.