NIR II Light-Response Au Nanoframes: Amplification of a Pressure- and Temperature-Sensing Strategy for Portable Detection and Photothermal Therapy of Cancer Cells

Abstract

Quantitative detection of cancer cells using portable devices is promising for the development of simple, fast, and pointof-care cancer diagnostic techniques. However, how to further amplify the detection signal to improve the sensitivity and accuracy of detecting cancer cells by portable devices remains a challenge. To solve the problem, we, for the first time, synthesized folic-acidconjugated Au nanoframes (FA-Au NFs) with amplification of pressure and temperature signals for highly sensitive and accurate detection of cancer cells by portable pressure meters and thermometers. The resulting Au NFs exhibit excellent near-infrared (NIR) photothermal performance and catalase activity, which can promote the decomposition of NH 4 HCO 3 and H 2 O 2 to generate corresponding gases (CO 2 , NH 3 , and O 2 ), thereby synergistically amplifying pressure signals in a closed reaction vessel. At the same time, Au NFs with excellent peroxidase-like activity can catalyze the oxidation of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) to produce TMB oxide (oxTMB) with a strong photothermal effect, thereby cooperating with Au NFs to amplify the photothermal signal. In the presence of cancer cells with overexpressing folate receptors (FRs), the molecular recognition signals between FA and FR can be converted into amplified pressure and temperature signals, which can be easily read by portable pressure meters and thermometers, respectively. The detection limits for cancer cells using pressure meters and thermometers are 6 and 5 cells/mL, respectively, which are better than other reported methods. Moreover, such Au NFs can improve tumor hypoxia by catalyzing the decomposition of H 2 O 2 to produce O 2 and perform photothermal therapy of cancer. Together, our work provides new insight into the application of Au NFs to develop a dual-signal sensing platform with amplification of pressure and temperature signals for portable and ultrasensitive detection of cancer cells as well as personalized cancer therapy.

Multi-Mimic Activities of Co3O4 Nanopolyhedrons and Application in Regulating the Content of Intracellular Hydrogen Peroxide/Oxygen

“…CAT-encapsulated hyaluronic acid NPs loaded with photosensitizers were synthesized, and the further obtained HA-CAT@aCe6 can target the overexpressed CD44 receptor on tumor cells and improve the efficiency of PDT under light irradiation by converting endogenous H 2 O 2 to O 2 . However, natural CAT has some inherent defects such as high sensitivity to the environment and low stability. , Fortunately, CAT mimic such as nanomaterials of Au, Pt, Pd, and nitrogen-doped carbon dots can effectively catalyze H 2 O 2 to O 2 in cells, providing excellent opportunities for regulating O 2 in tumor cells. Recently, Fu and his partners synthesized a hollow CoO@AuPt nanoenzyme, which can decompose the endogenous H 2 O 2 into O 2 by the CAT activity of Pt and greatly alleviate the problem of hypoxia in tumor .…”

Achieving Ultrasensitive Point-of-Care Assay for Mercury Ions with a Triple-Mode Strategy Based on the Mercury-Triggered Dual-Enzyme Mimetic Activities of Au/WO3 Hierarchical Hollow Nanoflowers

“…Nowadays, owing to the virtues of speediness, simplicity, affordable prices, and portable monitoring, pressure-based bioassays (PASS), which were based on the measurement of gas pressure, have been used as novel biosensing platforms and applied in the detection of cancer cells and other biomedical targets. − To achieve the goal of highly sensitive detection, the key step of PASS was the transformation of a recognition event into a highly efficient gas-generation reaction. Many researchers have chosen the decomposition of H 2 O 2 to H 2 O and O 2 as a gas-generation reaction due to its non-toxic and eco-friendly reactants and products. − Furthermore, the rate of this reaction could be regulated by catalase, which is the foundation for sensitive and accurate detection.…”

Portable and Label-Free Sensor Array for Discriminating Multiple Analytes via a Handheld Gas Pressure Meter

“…Therefore, it is profoundly attractive to develop simple, low-cost, and portable sensor arrays for discrimination of multiple analytes since it has a wide demand in food safety, environmental monitoring, and disease diagnosis as well. In the past few years, a large number of micro-devices are used as signal outputs to build portable biosensors because of their merits of simplicity, speed, and portability, such as glucose meter, thermometer, luminometer, and gas pressure meter. ,− Among these micro-devices, the digital and handheld gas pressure meter is cheap and easy to use for rapid and quantitative detection of gas pressure. Nanomaterials were usually used to construct gas pressure biosensors due to the merits of ease of synthesis, low cost, and high catalytic activity.…”