Synthesis and characterization of 159Gd-doped hydroxyapatite nanorods for bioapplications as theranostic systems

Abstract

Gadolinium-doped hydroxyapatite (HA-Gd) nanorods have become promisor theranostic nanoparticles for early stage cancers as radioisotope carriers able to act in the treatment and multi-imaging diagnosis by single photon emission computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging systems. In this work, gadolinium-doped HA nanorods were synthesized aiming the use as theranostic system for osteosarcomas. The as-prepared HA-Gd nanorods were characterized by XRD with Rietveld refinement method, FTIR, XPS, ICP-AES, TEM, SEM, BET and VSM in order to investigate the physical-chemical, morphology, pore size distribution and magnetic properties. Moreover, phosphorous and gadolinium in the HA-Gd sample were activated by neutron capture, in a nuclear reactor, producing 32P and 159Gd radioisotopes, and the surfaces of these nanorods were functionalized with folic acid. The results indicate that Gd3þ are trapped in the HA nanorods crystal net showing great stability of the HA-Gd interaction. Gadolinium provide paramagnetic properties on HA nanorods and structural phosphorous and gadolinium can be activated to induced gamma and beta activity. The well succeeded production of 159Gd-32PHA makes this material a promisor agent to act as a theranostic system.