Two-Photon Luminescence Imaging of Cancer Cells Using Molecularly Targeted Gold Nanorods

Abstract

We demonstrate the use of gold nanorods as bright contrast agents for two-photon luminescence (TPL) imaging of cancer cells in a three-dimensional tissue phantom down to 75 mum deep. The TPL intensity from gold-nanorod-labeled cancer cells is 3 orders of magnitude brighter than the two-photon autofluorescence (TPAF) emission intensity from unlabeled cancer cells at 760 nm excitation light. Their strong signal, resistance to photobleaching, chemical stability, ease of synthesis, simplicity of conjugation chemistry, and biocompatibility make gold nanorods an attractive contrast agent for two-photon imaging of epithelial cancer.

Gold nanorod assisted near-infrared plasmonic photothermal therapy (PPTT) of squamous cell carcinoma in mice

“…A variety of structures with unique structural [9,10], optical [11,12], electronic [13], magnetic [14], and catalytic [15] properties have been exploited in the areas of cancer imaging [2,[16][17][18][19], diagnostics [6,20,21], and treatment [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Noble metal nanoparticles provide remarkable opportunities in these applications due to their inherently low toxicity [31][32][33] and strongly enhanced optical properties associated with localized surface plasmon resonance [34][35][36].…”

“…Noble metal nanoparticles provide remarkable opportunities in these applications due to their inherently low toxicity [31][32][33] and strongly enhanced optical properties associated with localized surface plasmon resonance [34][35][36]. The enhanced electromagnetic field surrounding such particles gives rise to large absorption, Rayleigh (Mie) scattering, raman scattering, and twophoton luminescence cross-sections, properties which have been utilized in photothermal cancer therapy [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] (PTT), surface enhanced Raman detection [37][38][39] (SERS), and diagnostic imaging [17][18][19][20] applications.…”

Cellular Uptake, Intracellular Trafficking and Biological Responses of Gold Nanoparticles

“…[4][5] Their potential applications in biomedicine cover photothermal therapy of cancer, 6 biosensing, [7][8] gene and drug delivery, 9-10 biological imaging. [11][12][13] However, some essential issues are raised about how GNPs interact with biological systems and whether the interaction can induce potential adverse effects on health and environment.…”

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering with single-molecule sensitivity using a plasmonic Fano resonance

“…3b) from p-MA molecules (B10 3 molecules bound to the Au surfaces of the probe region of the quadrumer structure) consists of three sharp anti-Stokes features on top of a broadband background. The background has two main contributions: a dominant twophoton luminescence signal 29,30 , as well as a much weaker FWM signal 22 , both due to the Au nanostructure ( Supplementary Fig. 5 and Supplementary Note 1).…”