Gold Nanoshell Nanomicelles for Potential Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Light‐Triggered Drug Release, and Photothermal Therapy

Abstract

A novel multifunctional drug‐delivery platform is developed based on cholesteryl succinyl silane (CSS) nanomicelles loaded with doxorubicin, Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles, and gold nanoshells (CDF‐Au‐shell nanomicelles) to combine magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, magnetic‐targeted drug delivery, light‐triggered drug release, and photothermal therapy. The nanomicelles show improved drug‐encapsulation efficiency and loading level, and a good response to magnetic fields, even after the formation of the gold nanoshell. An enhancement for T2‐weighted MR imaging is observed for the CDF‐Au‐shell nanomicelles. These nanomicelles display surface plasmon absorbance in the near‐infrared (NIR) region, thus exhibiting an NIR (808 nm)‐induced temperature elevation and an NIR light‐triggered and stepwise release behavior of doxorubicin due to the unique characteristics of the CSS nanomicelles. Photothermal cytotoxicity in vitro confirms that the CDF‐Au‐shell nanomicelles cause cell death through photothermal effects only under NIR laser irradiation. Cancer cells incubated with CDF‐Au‐shell nanomicelles show a significant decrease in cell viability only in the presence of both NIR irradiation and a magnetic field, which is attributed to the synergetic effects of the magnetic‐field‐guided drug delivery and the photothermal therapy. Therefore, such multicomponent nanomicelles can be developed as a smart and promising nanosystem that integrates multiple capabilities for effective cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Photothermal therapy of melanoma tumor using multiwalled carbon nanotubes

“…Internalized nanoparticles (NPs) to the tumor sites could be stimulated by laser irradiation, to produce localized heat in the range of 40°C-45°C so as to destroy cancer cells. [2][3][4][5] NPs such as single-walled carbon nanotubes, 6 multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), 7,8 graphene, 9,10 iron oxide NPs, 11 gold nanorods, 12 and gold nanoshells 13,14 are used to transform NIR radiation to vibrational energy. Therefore, heat generation based on laser irritation could elevate malignant tissues' temperature and destroy tumors.…”

光热响应的Cu7S4@pNIPAm纳米载体应用于可控的药物/光热治疗

“…To date, various photothermal agents have been employed to generate heat from light, which results in ablation and succeeding death of cancer cells [23]. Gold nanomaterials such as nanorods [24], nanoshells [25], nanostars [26] and nanocages [27,28] are one of the mostly investigated agents due to their easy accessibility. Yet, recent results indicated that these kinds of photothermal agents suffer from poor photostability under continuous irradiation of NIR light [29,30].…”

Comparative hyperthermia effects of silica–gold nanoshells with different surface coverage of gold clusters on epithelial tumor cells

“…12,13 Nanomicelles with Au shells are designed to be multifunctional drug-delivery vehicles and to combine bio-imaging, targeting, and light-triggered drug release. 14 Since the first report 1 regarding seed-mediated fabrication of silica-gold nanoshell (SGNS) nearly two decades ago, numerous studies [2][3][4][5][6]8,[13][14][15] have focused on the fabrication of SGNS exhibiting robust structural integrity and the tunable optical resonance by simply adjusting the core-shell ratio across the metal interface, and there have been many attempts to utilize the strong NIR absorption of SGNS as a phototriggered hyperthermia agent on the morbidity of tumor cells. However, there have been concerns regarding the potential human carcinogenicity of silica core materials.…”