Facile synthesis of liposome/Cu2−x S-based nanocomposite for multimodal imaging and photothermal therapy

Abstract

A kind of multifunctional perfluoropentane (PFP) and ultrasmall Cu2−xS nanodots (u-Cu2−xS NDs) co-incorporated liposome (PFP@ u-Cu2 −xS NDs@liposome) nanocomposite has been facilely and successfully synthesized for enhanced ultrasound/infrared thermal/ photoacoustic multimodal imaging and photothermal therapy upon near infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. Such a liposome-based nanocomposite possesses a number of advantages, such as high dispersity and stability, excellent biocompatibility, small particle size (<100 nm), well-defined core/shell structure, strong NIR absorption and photo-triggered vaporization of PFP, etc. The detailed in vitro investigations demonstrate that the as-synthesized PFP@ u-Cu2−xS NDs@ liposome nanocomposite is capable of enhancing the contrasts of ultrasound/infrared thermal/photoacoustic multimodal imaging, and substantially improving the photothermal therapeutic efficacy. This novel liposome-based theranostic nanoplatform shows great potentials in the future cancer diagnosis and therapy. INTRODUCTIDNOver the past decades, billions of people have suffered from various cancers worldwide [1]. Fortunately, diverse diagnostic imaging technologies [2-4] and powerful therapeutic methodologies [5][6][7][8][9] have emerged for cancer theranostics. As a minimally invasive and potentially effective therapeutic technique compared with conventional approaches, photothermal therapy (PTT) [10][11][12][13], which utilizes photothermal agents to convert near-infrared (NIR) energy into hyperthermia to kill cancer cells, has receiv ed extensive interest in recent years. Especially, imaging-guided PTT [14][15][16][17] shows great promise in improved efficiency and bio-safety.Currently, ultrasound imaging [18][19][20] is believed to be one of the most widely used imaging tools in the clinic, owing to its considerably high resolution, deep tissue penetration, easy soft tissue recognition and low cost. However, the ultrasound waves are easily disrupted by air or gas and unable to penetrate bones [21]. Infrared thermal imaging [22][23][24] its high imaging speed, sensitivity and convenience, but it suffers from relatively low imaging resolution. Recently, the newly developed photoacoustic imaging [25-28] is emerging as a complementary imaging modality, which combines the high contrast of optical imaging and the high spatial resolution of ultrasound imaging. Therefore, the combination of ultrasound/infrared theramal/photoacoustic imaging techniques will bring unexpected potentials in offering more comprehensive and accurate information with the complementary features of these techniques. In addition, the ingenious strategy of the multimodal imaging-guided PTT will be more powerful and efficient in PTT pre-guidance, intra-monitoring and post-evaluation. Therefore, the exploration of such multifunctional theranostic na noplatforms, which combine both diagnostic and therapeutic functions to allow simultaneous multimodal imaging and therapy as well as the monitoring of tissue/organ's responses to the treatments, h...

Plasmonic doped semiconductor nanocrystals: Properties, fabrication, applications and perspectives

“…The plasmonic properties of copper chalcogenide NCs were proposed for photothermal therapy in various independent works, including their use for theranostics serving as both radiotracers and as photothermal probes in tumor ablation treatments [27,28,42,43,[322][323][324][325][326][327][328][329][330][331] (see Figure 32a). Metal oxide NCs have also been suggested for photothermal therapy, although to a lesser extent [359][360][361][362][363].…”

Ethylene glycol-mediated synthetic route for production of luminescent silicon nanorod as photodynamic therapy agent

“…Notably, the SiNRs also exhibit good PDT efficacy for hepatocyte cells due to the universal endocytosis of different kinds of cells, suggesting the inability ofSiNRs for the enhanced selectivity to cancer cells in the absence of targeting molecules such as folic acid, and antibody. Furthermore, calcein AM and PI co-staining assay was used to visually evaluate the PDT efficiency [67][68][69]. As shown in Fig.…”

Two-dimensional non-carbonaceous materials-enabled efficient photothermal cancer therapy

“…Carbon-based nanosystems including mesoporous carbon [19][20][21], carbon nanodots [22,23] and graphene [24,25] were also explored in biomedical applications, especially in photothermal therapy based on their strong light absorption in NIR region and corresponding high photothermal-conversion efficiency [26]. Some organic, inorganic and their hybrid nanosystems, such as polypyrrole [27], indocyanine green [28], conductive polymers [29], CuS [30,31], Prussian blue [32], WO x [33], black TiO 2 [34] and other organic polymer/molecules [35,36] also provide alternative photothermal agents for PTT.…”