Uniform polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles are fabricated from a facile one-step aqueous dispersion polymerization. Owing to their high photothermal conversion efficiency and photostability compared with the well-known Au nanorods, as well as their good colloidal stability and biocompatibility, the resulting PPy nanoparticles can used as a novel promising photothermal ablation coupling agent for targeted treatment of cancer.

Successful development of safe and effective nanoprobes for tumor targeting and selective therapy is a challenging task. Although gold nanorods(GNRs) have the potential to perform such a role, the toxicity of surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromides (CTAB) on their surfaces limits their applications. Here, polyamidoamine dendrimer was applied to replace CTAB molecules on the surface of gold nanorods. When the resultant dendrimer-modified gold nanorods conjugated with arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) peptides, they showed highly selective targeting and destructive effects on the cancer cells and solid tumors under near-infrared laser irradiation. Also, we successfully observed the disappearance of tumors implanted in four sample mice from test group of ten. High-performance RGD-conjugated dendrimer-modified GNR nanoprobes exhibit great potential in applications such as tumor targeting, imaging, and selective photothermal therapy.

A novel multifunctional drug‐delivery platform is developed based on cholesteryl succinyl silane (CSS) nanomicelles loaded with doxorubicin, Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles, and gold nanoshells (CDF‐Au‐shell nanomicelles) to combine magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, magnetic‐targeted drug delivery, light‐triggered drug release, and photothermal therapy. The nanomicelles show improved drug‐encapsulation efficiency and loading level, and a good response to magnetic fields, even after the formation of the gold nanoshell. An enhancement for T2‐weighted MR imaging is observed for the CDF‐Au‐shell nanomicelles. These nanomicelles display surface plasmon absorbance in the near‐infrared (NIR) region, thus exhibiting an NIR (808 nm)‐induced temperature elevation and an NIR light‐triggered and stepwise release behavior of doxorubicin due to the unique characteristics of the CSS nanomicelles. Photothermal cytotoxicity in vitro confirms that the CDF‐Au‐shell nanomicelles cause cell death through photothermal effects only under NIR laser irradiation. Cancer cells incubated with CDF‐Au‐shell nanomicelles show a significant decrease in cell viability only in the presence of both NIR irradiation and a magnetic field, which is attributed to the synergetic effects of the magnetic‐field‐guided drug delivery and the photothermal therapy. Therefore, such multicomponent nanomicelles can be developed as a smart and promising nanosystem that integrates multiple capabilities for effective cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Highly ordered silver sulfide nanorods conjugated with the Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) protein have been successfully achieved at ambient temperature. Such a process is very simple and controllable, directly using silver nitrate and thioacetamide (TAA) as the reactants in the aqueous solution of BSA. The products have been characterized by XRD, HRTEM-SAED, SEM-EDS, TG-DTA, FT-IR, and CD spectroscopy. The results of the research show that the as-prepared Ag2S nanorods are monodispersed with sizes about 40 nm in diameter and 220 nm in length, and exhibit a high degree of crystallinity and good photoluminescence. Furthermore, an interesting mechanism is discussed for the formation of the Ag2S nanorods.