Therapy with Gold Nanoparticles and Lasers: What Really Kills The Cells?

Abstract

Letter to the editor "…any therapy-related study should be based on a well-justified mechanism of laser-GNP-cell interactions. Otherwise photothermal nanomedicine may never get from the lab to the clinic.

Heating of Biological Tissues by Gold Nano Particles: Effects of Particle Size and Distribution

“…Optimization of process efficiency and enhancement of thermal conversion require an adequate choice of the laser wavelength consistent with the particle shape and size. [13,14] In this section heating by a single gold sphere of radius a is considered. The sphere is exposed to a laser beam of wavelength , intensity I 0 (W/m 2 ) and assumed to generate a power proportional to the absorption cross section  abs, P abs =I 0  abs (W).…”

Nanoparticles: Heating Tumors to Death?

“…It is well known that cells heated to between 41 and 47°C enter apoptosis, while heating cells above 46-47°C for a few minutes induces cell death by necrosis (Table 1) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. The difference in the range of heating temperature defines two regimens of thermotherapy -hyperthermia and thermoablation, respectively (Table 1).…”

Optimization of photothermal methods for laser hyperthermia of malignant cells using bioconjugates of gold nanoparticles

“…An alternative to the photodynamic method is a method that has been developed in the last decade for the selective thermal action by laser radiation on malig nant tumor affected tissues labeled with plasmon resonant nanoparticles. This method has been named "plasmon resonant photothermal therapy" (PRPTT) [4][5][6].…”

“…Review [5] reports results of a comparison of the photothermal actions of continuous and pulsed laser radiations on malignant cells under the conditions of the specific bonding of nanoparticles to the cells via antibodies. The approach based on the use of contin uous laser radiation encounters a problem relevant to the low selectivity of the action on malignant cells, at which nanoparticles heated for a long time generate an isotropic temperature field with low radial gradients in an ambient medium.…”