Recent advances in multifunctional magnetic nanoparticles and applications to biomedical diagnosis and treatment

By virtue of the unique magnetic properties and other functionalities, multifunctional magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are very promising in diagnostic and therapeutic applications. This review summarizes recent developments pertaining to the synthesis of MNPs with focus on the various surface modification strategies such as chemical synthesis, self-assembly, and ligand exchange. Recent applications of MNPs to multimodal imaging including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/optical imaging (fluorescent dyes, quantum dots (QDs), near-infrared absorption and up-conversion luminescence, MRI/positron emission tomography (PET), MRI/X-ray computed tomography (CT), and triple modality imaging are discussed. In addition, targeted drug and gene delivery, hyperthermia treatment for cancer, and other biomedical diagnosis rendered possible by MNPs are described.