Gold nanorods/mesoporous silica-based nanocomposite as theranostic agents for targeting near-infrared imaging and photothermal therapy induced with laser

Abstract

Photothermal therapy (PTT) is widely regarded as a promising technology for cancer treatment. Gold nanorods (GNRs), as excellent PTT agent candidates, have shown high-performance photothermal conversion ability under laser irradiation, yet two major obstacles to their clinical application are the lack of selective accumulation in the target site following systemic administration and the greatly reduced photothermal conversion efficiency caused by self-aggregating in aqueous environment. Herein, we demonstrate that tLyp-1 peptide-functionalized, indocyanine green (ICG)-containing mesoporous silica-coated GNRs (I-TMSG) possessed dual-function as tumor cells-targeting near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe and PTT agents. The construction of the nanostructure began with synthesis of GNRs by seed-mediated growth method, followed by the coating of mesoporous silica, the chemical conjugation of PEG and tLyp-1 peptide, and the enclosure of ICG as an NIR imaging agent in the mesoporous. The as-prepared nanoparticles could shield the GNRs against their self-aggregation, improve the stability of ICG, and exhibit negligible dark cytotoxicity. More importantly, such a theranostic nanocomposite could realize the combination of GNRs-based photothermal ablation under NIR illumination, ICG-mediated fluorescent imaging, and tLyp-1-enabled more easy endocytosis into breast cancer cells. All in all, I-TMSG nanoparticles, in our opinion, possessed the strong potential to realize the effective diagnosis and PTT treatment of human mammary cancer.

Metal, Metalloid, and Oxide Nanoparticles for Therapeutic and Diagnostic Oncology

“…These NPs are versatile agents with various applications in biomedicine, including diagnostic assays [16,17], thermal ablation, efficacy enhancement of radiotherapy [18][19][20][21], and drug or gene delivery [22][23][24][25][26].…”

“…Depending on the size and composition, metal NPs can represent special properties, such as quantum confinement in semiconductor nanocrystals, surface Diagnosis and imaging Therapeutic plasmon resonance, especially in gold NPs, and superparamagnetism, which is mostly observed in iron oxide NPs [12,17]. In the last decade, many dextrancoated magnetic nanoparticle formulations have been approved for clinical use as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents, including ferumoxides, ferumoxtran, and ferucarbotran [27].…”

Surface modification of plasmonic noble metal–metal oxide core–shell nanoparticles

“…102 Maleimide-PEG-NHS molecules with different molecular weights were used to prepare active Aunanorod@SiO 2 surfaces for further conjugation to peptides with thiol groups such as tLyP-1 peptide and SH-RGD. 103,104 The modied nanostructures were used for targeting imaging, photothermal therapy (PPT) and drug delivery. Although the previous examples all involve surface modication with a single linker, it is possible to use more than one linker for conjugation.…”

Novel Chemo-Photothermal Therapy in Breast Cancer Using Methotrexate-Loaded Folic Acid Conjugated Au@SiO2 Nanoparticles

“…Alternatively, mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN) was known to be appropriate drug, DNA and protein carrier because of its higher drug loading capability and lack of toxic contents that produced from its degradations. They also have a big surface area, controllable size, highly available pore volume, and desired surface features apply for a modification [47].…”