EGFR Antibody Conjugated Bimetallic Au@Ag Nanorods for Enhanced SERS-Based Tumor Boundary Identification, Targeted Photoacoustic Imaging and Photothermal Therapy

Abstract

The development of multifunctional nanoprobes for simultaneous targeted imaging, tumor boundary identification and photothermal therapy of gastric cancer has become a great challenge. Herein, EGFR monoclonal antibody-conjugated Au@Ag nanorods decorated with DTNB nanoprobes (5,5'-Dithiobis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid)) (EGFR-Au@Ag NR nanotags) were prepared and characterized. Their biocompatibility was analyzed by MTT assay. In vitro studies show that EGFR-Au@Ag NR nanotags own good biocompatibility and capability of targeting and entering into gastric cancer MGC803 cells, silver nano-film layer on the surface of gold nanorods remarkably enhance surfaceenhanced rama spectra (SERS) signal, enhanced photoacoustic imaging efficacy and photothermal conversion efficiency of gold nanorods. In vivo studies show that prepared nanotags could target actively gastric cancer cells at 2 h post-injection, and distributed in the tumor site, exhibited enhanced SERS signals to display clearly tumor boundary, enhanced photoacoustic imaging to display clearly tumor boundary. Under 1 w/cm 2 laser irradiation, tumor growth was remarkably inhibited by local photothermal therapy. In conclusion, high performance EGFR-antibody conjugated Au@Ag nanorod-DTNB nanoprobes exhibit great potential in applications such as targeted photoacoustic imaging, simultaneous tumor boundary identification and selective photothermal therapy of gastric cancer in the near future.

Cancer characterization and diagnosis with SERS-encoded particles

“…However, the preparation of Ag nanorods is extremely challenging and, for this reason, silver coating of preformed Au nanorods (Au@Ag nanorods) has been largely preferred for this aim, paving the way to the fabrication of SEPs ( Fig. 2e) with a considerable increase in the SERS intensity (Chen et al 2016). Still, synthesis of nanorods requires the use of hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a surfactant that electrostatically binds the metallic surface.…”

“…With such complementary approaches, multimodal imaging technologies have been developed implementing SERS with other imaging techniques based on different physical effects such as fluorescence (Cui et al 2011;Qian et al 2011;Wang et al 2014b), magnetic resonance (Gao et al 2015;Ju et al 2015) and photoacoustics (Bao et al 2013;Chen et al 2016;Dinish et al 2015;Jokerst et al 2012a;Kircher et al 2012).…”

Direct monitoring of light mediated hyperthermia induced within mammalian tissues using surface enhanced spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (T-SESORS)

“…8,9 The clinical need for such technology stems from the limitations with current photodynamic therapies (PDT), which are largely non-specific for cancer cells, depth limited and/or have various side effects including systemic light sensitivity. [9][10][11] It is envisioned that nanomaterials would be selectively functionalised to not only specifically target cancer/tumours, utilising appropriate antibodies, [12][13][14][15][16][17] but also to act simultaneously as a therapeutic agent. This is often considered in the form of photothermal or magnetothermal heating.…”

Biocompatible 5-Aminolevulinic Acid/Au Nanoparticle-Loaded Ethosomal Vesicles for In Vitro Transdermal Synergistic Photodynamic/Photothermal Therapy of Hypertrophic Scars

“…PTT is also an extraordinary theranostic approach for various diseases [ 14 , 15 ]. Up to now, it has been successfully applied in clinical treatment of HS [ 16 ].…”