Albumin-Bioinspired Gd:CuS Nanotheranostic Agent for In Vivo Photoacoustic/Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Guided Tumor-Targeted Photothermal Therapy

Abstract

Photothermal therapy (PTT) is attracting increasing interest and becoming more widely used for skin cancer therapy in the clinic, as a result of its noninvasiveness and low systemic adverse effects. However, there is an urgent need to develop biocompatible PTT agents, which enable accurate imaging, monitoring, and diagnosis. Herein, a biocompatible Gd-integrated CuS nanotheranostic agent (Gd:CuS@BSA) was synthesized via a facile and environmentally friendly biomimetic strategy, using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a biotemplate at physiological temperature. The as-prepared Gd:CuS@BSA nanoparticles (NPs) with ultrasmall sizes (ca. 9 nm) exhibited high photothermal conversion efficiency and good photostability under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. With doped Gd species and strong tunable NIR absorbance, Gd:CuS@BSA NPs demonstrate prominent tumor-contrasted imaging performance both on the photoacoustic and magnetic resonance imaging modalities. The subsequent Gd:CuS@BSA-mediated PTT result shows high therapy efficacy as a result of their potent NIR absorption and high photothermal conversion efficiency. The immune response triggered by Gd:CuS@BSA-mediated PTT is preliminarily explored. In addition, toxicity studies in vitro and in vivo verify that Gd:CuS@BSA NPs qualify as biocompatible agents. A biodistribution study demonstrated that the NPs can undergo hepatic clearance from the body. This study highlights the practicality and versatility of albumin-mediated biomimetic mineralization of a nanotheranostic agent and also suggests that bioinspired Gd:CuS@BSA NPs possess promising imaging guidance and effective tumor ablation properties, with high spatial resolution and deep tissue penetration.

Multifunctional Cu1.94S-Bi2S3@polymer nanocomposites for computed tomography imaging guided photothermal ablation

“…Bi 2 S 3 @PSI OAm NCs is better or comparable to that of different nanoplatforms for PTT in previous reports [19,[53][54][55].…”

NIR‐Triggered Crystal Phase Transformation of NiTi‐Layered Double Hydroxides Films for Localized Chemothermal Tumor Therapy

“…A lot of drug delivery systems have been developed to realize combination chemotherapy and photothermal ablation. For instance, chemical drugs were directly loaded in photothermal nanoparticles, such as gold,19, 20, 21, 22 sulfide,23, 24, 25, 26 graphene and graphene‐like materials,27, 28, 29, 30 Prussian blue;31, 32 or loaded in mesoporous silica, smart polymer, aptamer, and cleavable linkages etc. modified on the photothermal particles 33, 34.…”

Plasmonic doped semiconductor nanocrystals: Properties, fabrication, applications and perspectives

“…Indeed, the X-ray computer tomography images were enhanced after injection of Au-Cu 9 S 5 core-shell nanoparticles, due to the presence of the higher atomic number element Au, which has excellent X-ray attenuation ability [43]. Another promising direction in this field is represented by photoacoustic imaging, a technique in which a transient thermal expansion in the biological tissue, induced by a laser pulse, is detected as ultrasonic emission [338][339][340][341][342][343]. It was found for example that Au-Cu 2-x Se NCs represent efficient tools for in vivo non-invasive photoacoustic imaging in deep tissue with imaging depths of 17 mm using a 1064 nm laser source [343].…”