Nanoscale coordination polymers exhibiting luminescence properties and NMR relaxivity

This article presents the first example of ultra-small (3-4 nm) magneto-luminescent cyano-bridged coordination polymer nanoparticles Ln(0.33)(3+)Gd(x)(3+)/[Mo(CN)(8)](3-) (Ln = Eu (x = 0.34), Tb (x = 0.35)) enwrapped by a natural biocompatible polymer chitosan. The aqueous colloidal solutions of these nanoparticles present a luminescence characteristic of the corresponding lanthanides (D-5(0) -> F-7(0-4) (Eu3+) or the D-5(4) -> F-7(6-2) (Tb3+)) under UV excitation and a green luminescence of the chitosan shell under excitation in the visible region. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) efficiency, i.e. the nuclear relaxivity, measurements performed for Ln(0.33)(3)Gd(x)(3+)/[Mo(CN)(8)](3-) nanoparticles show r(1p) and r(2p) relaxivities slightly higher than or comparable to the ones of the commercial paramagnetic compounds Gd-DTPA (R) or Omniscan (R) indicating that our samples may potentially be considered as a positive contrast agent for MRI. The in vitro studies performed on these nanoparticles show that they maybe internalized into human cancer and normal cells and well detected by fluorescence at the single cell level. They present high stability even at low pH and lack of cytotoxicity both in human cancer and normal cells.