Near‐Infrared‐Resonant Gold/Gold Sulfide Nanoparticles as a Photothermal Cancer Therapeutic Agent

Abstract

The development and optimization of near-infrared (nIR) absorbing nanoparticles for use as photothermal cancer therapeutic agents has been ongoing. We have previously reported on larger layered gold / silica nanoshells (~140 nm) for combined therapy and imaging applications. This work exploits the properties of smaller gold / gold sulfide (GGS) nIR absorbing nanoparticles (~35-55 nm) that provide higher absorption (98% absorption & 2% scattering for GGS versus 70% absorption & 30% scattering for gold/silica nanoshells) as well as potentially better tumor penetration. In this work we demonstrate ability to ablate tumor cells in vitro, and efficacy for photothermal cancer therapy, where in an in vivo model we show significantly increased longterm, tumor-free survival. Further, enhanced circulation and bio-distribution is observed in vivo. This class of nIR absorbing nanoparticles has potential to improve upon photothermal tumor ablation for cancer therapy.

Anti-CD30-targeted gold nanoparticles for photothermal therapy of L-428 Hodgkin's cell

“…The absorption peak of gold nanorods, nanoshells, and nanocages are all in the NIR region. Some recent studies have focused on in vitro and in vivo photothermal cancer treatments; [30][31][32][33][34][35][36] however, the optimization of gold nanoparticle-based therapy techniques to physiological environments needs further study, to determine the clinical success of gold nanostructure-based nanomedicine. 19,37,38 …”

Gold nanoparticles induce nuclear damage in breast cancer cells, which is further amplified by hyperthermia

“…Their potential use in the field ranges from detection by imaging, labeling, or sensing [1][2][3][4][5] to treatment, including drug delivery and phototherapy [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

Mesenchymal Stem Cells as Vehicles for Targeted Therapies

“…High Z-elements like gold can be utilized for radiotherapy enhancement (Butterworth et al, 2010;Chang et al, 2008;Chithrani et al, 2010;Hainfeld et al, 2004Hainfeld et al, , 2008Herold et al, 2000;Kong et al, 2008;Liu et al, 2010;Rahman et al, 2009;Rose et al, 1999), photothermal ablation of cancer cells by heating with near-infrared lasers (Atkinson et al, 2010;Chen et al, 2010b;Cherukuri et al, 2010;Diagaradjane et al, 2008;Gobin et al, 2010;Kennedy et al, 2011), and thermal destruction of cancer cells by radiofrequency fieldinduced heating (Gannon et al, 2008). Radiotherapy is one of the most commonly used methods in cancer therapy.…”