Multifunctional nanoparticles (NPs) have great potential for multimodal cancer imaging and effective therapy. We have developed multifunctional NPs (GNR@SiO 2 @QDs) by incorporating gold nanorods (GNRs) and CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) into silica. Folic acid (FA) as a targeting ligand was covalently conjugated on the surfaces of GNR@SiO 2 @QDs with a silane coupling agent. Cell viability assay showed that these NPs had low cytotoxicity. And confocal fluorescence images illustrated that they could selectively target HeLa cells overexpressing folate receptors (FRs) rather than FR-deficient A549 cells. In vitro cell imaging experiments revealed that these NPs exhibited strong X-ray attenuation for X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging and strong fluorescence for fluorescence imaging. They also showed an enhanced photothermal therapy (PTT) effect for cancer cells due to GNRs' high absorption coefficient in the near infrared (NIR) region and a better heat generation rate. All results show that they have great potential in theranostic applications such as for targeted tumor imaging and therapy.

Gold nanorods (GNRs) have great potential widespread applications in biomedical imaging, drug delivery and photothermal therapy due to unique surface plasmon resonance (SPR) ranging from visible to near infrared (NIR) region, facile synthesis and easy functionalization. In this review, the recent progress of GNRs in bioimaging, drug delivery, photothermal therapy and theranostics is summarized and the recommendations for the future work on GNRs are also covered.

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A numerical simulation of the micro-explosion process during hard tissue ablation with infrared laser has been developed.This simulation investigates the explosion dynamics evolution of the water film in the Er:YAG and CO 2 laser irradiation and calculates the pressure and intensity of impulse on the hard tissue surface. The calculation results indicate that the micro-explosion has its special duration for different parameters. The pressure on the target surface caused by the explosion increases rapidly with the laser intensity increase and the maximal pressure value appeared for an adaptive water film thickness.