Cerasome-based gold-nanoshell encapsulating L-menthol for ultrasound contrast imaging and photothermal therapy of cancer

Abstract

Various nanoformulations of perfluorocarbon have been developed thus far, to achieve ultrasound imaging of tumors and tumor-targeted therapy. However, their application has been greatly limited by their short sonographic duration and large size distribution. A novel theranostic agent was constructed based on gold nanoshell cerasome-encapsulated L-menthol (GNC-LM). Owing to the sustained and controllable generation of L-menthol bubbles under near-infrared laser irradiation, GNC-LM showed good performance in contrast enhancement of ultrasound imaging in vivo. GNC-LM could be imaged for 30 min, which is much longer than the imaging time of SonoVue (commercially used microbubbles). Moreover, photothermal therapy (PTT) based on the light-to-heat conversion of the nanosystem effectively ablated the tumor. Our study demonstrated the promising potential of the obtained GNC-LM to serve as a therapeutic nanoprobe for ultrasound contrast imaging and PTT of tumors.

Menthol: An underestimated anticancer agent

“…In addition, menthol is highly permeable, allowing it to deliver drugs to tumor lesions faster and more efficiently in nanotechnology applications (Liang et al, 2018;Gao et al, 2019;Liang et al, 2019;Otake et al, 2021). In one such application, gold nanoshell cerasome-encapsulated L-menthol (GNC-LM) has been shown to greatly prolong the ultrasound imaging time in vivo with good contrast enhancement, via the continuous release of gas microbubbles (Guan et al, 2019). Meanwhile, PTT based on the GNC-LM system could effectively ablate tumors, indicating the potential use of GNC-LM as a therapeutic nanoprobe for ultrasound imaging and in PTT (Guan et al, 2019).…”

“…In one such application, gold nanoshell cerasome-encapsulated L-menthol (GNC-LM) has been shown to greatly prolong the ultrasound imaging time in vivo with good contrast enhancement, via the continuous release of gas microbubbles (Guan et al, 2019). Meanwhile, PTT based on the GNC-LM system could effectively ablate tumors, indicating the potential use of GNC-LM as a therapeutic nanoprobe for ultrasound imaging and in PTT (Guan et al, 2019). For glioma treatment, menthol-modified casein nanoparticles encapsulating anti-cancer drugs showed deeper tumor penetration and higher brain tumor distribution than unmodified nanoparticles.…”

Ultrasound contrast agents from microbubbles to biogenic gas vesicles

“…Upon exposure to laser irradiation, photothermal effect of Au triggered phase change of PFCs to significantly enhance ultrasound signals of tumors. Similar gold-based NPs replaced liquid PFCs with solid menthol for extending imaging time to 30 min much longer than SonoVue [ 110 ]. As another photoabsorber, iron oxide was co-loaded with PFCs to design phase-change NPs for contrast-enhanced ultrasound of tumors in mice [ 111 ].…”

Preparation of Cellulose Hydrogel Dressing with Evenly Dispersed Hydrophobic Drugs by Hydrogen Bonding and Encapsulation Methods

“…Menthol is an effective component of Chinese herbal medicine, with antipruritic, analgesic, anesthetic, cooling and anti‐inflammatory effects. [ 30–32 ] It is widely used as wound dressings, [ 33 ] medical cosmetics [ 34 ] and other products [ 35 ] to relieve local itching, pain and other local anesthesia. Despite its great potential in medical applications, [ 36,37 ] its low solubility in water makes it difficult to disperse uniformly in common drug delivery systems.…”