Multiple Release Kinetics of Targeted Drug from Gold Nanorod Embedded Polyelectrolyte Conjugates Induced by Near-Infrared Laser Irradiation

Abstract

The conjugates of gold nanorods and the model drug, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), embedded inside polyelectrolytes (GNRs/FITC@PLE) were synthesized to study the release kinetics of FITC under femtosecond near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. The optical and structural properties of GNRs/FITC@PLE conjugates before and after laser treatments were examined using UV-vis spectroscopy, confocal microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The release of FITC from the conjugates was induced by the heat generated from gold nanorods under laser irradiation. The concentration of released FITC was measured as the time of continuous and periodic laser irradiation was varied. Within 5 min of the laser exposure, the release rates of FITC exhibited zero-order and first-order kinetics under continuous and periodic irradiation, respectively. Furthermore, a drug release system was designed based on the conjugates of gold nanorods and the anticancer drug, paclitaxel (PTX), embedded inside polyelectrolytes (GNRs/PTX@PLE). The conjugates were applied for in vitro studies with breast cancer cells. The release of PTX from the conjugates was triggered by NIR laser irradiation, and the inhibition rates of the cells showed strong dependencies on the irradiation modes and time. The results suggested that the multiple releases of PTX from the conjugates can be controlled by laser irradiation within a long period of time. Our system holds great potential for future therapeutic applications on breast cancers.

Label-free colorimetric sensor for ultrasensitive detection of heparin based on color quenching of gold nanorods by graphene oxide

“…Noble metal nanomaterials, in particular, gold nanorods (AuNRs), have attracted much attention in colorimetric detection due to their interesting physical and chemical properties (Castellana et al, 2011;Kuo et al, 2010;Liu et al, 2011). AuNRs show higher absorption cross sections and stronger light scattering properties than those of spherical gold nanoparticles owing to their stronger surface plasmon resonance (SPR) characteristics (Liao and 0956-5663/$ -see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.…”

Self-illuminative cascade-reaction-driven anticancer therapeutic cassettes made of cooperatively interactive nanocomplexes

“…Light-sensitive therapies working at nearinfrared (NIR) wavelengths have been emphasized due to both their synergetic effects and minimal in vivo physiological interference, as well as various functional modules [1,2]. These therapeutics include gold nanorods [3], gold nanoshells [4], carbon nanotubes [5,6], and supramolecular nanostructures [7,8] possessing specific properties of NIR-specialized optical resonance. NIR-induced combinational nanoarchitectures have enabled spatiotemporal control of theragnostic effects with sustainable drug release [9], localized thermal ablation [10,11] and minimized off-target effects [12,13], and have been found to be effective for treating a variety of solid cancers, including those of the skin [14], breast [15] and liver [16].…”

Effect of precursor solution dark incubation on gold nanorods morphology

“…Different from the transverse plasmon absorption, longitudinal surface plasmon absorption is highly sensitive to the change in both the aspect ratio (length/width) of the NRs and the dielectric constant of the surrounding medium. This high sensitivity of the LSP peak makes AuNRs attractive candidates for biological applications [6] as biosensors [7][8][9], for cell imaging [10,11], target drug delivery [12,13] and for nanomedicine [14,15]. AuNRs have interesting applications also in photonic devices [16,17], enhancement of Raman scattering spectroscopy [18], light fluorescence [19] and light scattering [20,21].…”