Multifunctional Gold Nanostar Conjugates for Tumor Imaging and Combined Photothermal and Chemo-therapy

Abstract

Uniform gold nanostars (Au NS) were conjugated with cyclic RGD (cRGD) and near infrared (NIR) fluorescence probe (MPA) or anti-cancer drug (DOX) to obtain multi-functional nanoconstructs, Au-cRGD-MPA and Au-cRGD-DOX respectively. The NIR contrast agent Au-cRGD-MPA was shown to have low cytotoxicity. Using tumor cells and tumor bearing mice, these imaging nanoparticles demonstrated favorable tumor-targeting capability mediated by RGD peptide binding to its over-expressed receptor on the tumor cells. The multi-therapeutic analogue, Au-cRGD-DOX, integrates targeting tumor, chemotherapy and photo-thermotherapy into a single system. The synergistic effect of photo-thermal therapy and chemotherapy was demonstrated in different tumor cell lines and in vivo using S180 tumor-bearing mouse models. The viability of MDA-MB-231 cells was only 40 % after incubation with Au-cRGD-DOX and irradiation with NIR light. Both tail vein and intratumoral injections showed Au-cRGD-DOX treated mice exhibiting the slowest tumor increase. These results indicate that the multifunctional nanoconstruct is a promising combined therapeutic agent for tumor-targeting treatment, with the potential to enhance the anti-cancer treatment outcomes.

Gold nanostars for efficient in vitro and in vivo real-time SERS detection and drug delivery via plasmonic-tunable Raman/FTIR imaging

“…13,37 Thus, gold nanostars are unique materials with an intense surface plasmon band that affords absorption in the near-infrared region. [21][22][23][24][25][26] with MTX-nanostars during 48 hours of incubation using the Perkin Elmer Spotlight 400 system for the FTIR and the LabRAM HR Evolution spectrometer for the SERS maps.…”

Hollow Au/Ag nanostars displaying broad plasmonic resonance and high surface-enhanced Raman sensitivity

“…1a). Five minutes after, an aqueous solution of HAuCl 4 was added (Fig. 1d), followed by a solution of citrate (CIT).…”

α_vβ₃ integrin-targeted micellar mertansine prodrug effectively inhibits triple-negative breast cancer in vivo

“…cRGD peptide has shown a strong binding toward α v β 3 integrin-overexpressed MDA-MB-231 TNBC cells. [30][31][32] Interestingly, our results showed that cRGD-MMP can effectively target to and treat MDA-MB-231 cells in vivo. This micellar mertansine prodrug (MMP) has appeared as a promising platform for potent treatment of TNBC.…”