Intracellular pH-Induced Tip-to-Tip Assembly of Gold Nanorods for Enhanced Plasmonic Photothermal Therapy

The search for efficient plasmonic photothermal therapies using nonharmful pulse laser irradiation at the near-infrared (NIR) is fundamental for biomedical cancer research. Therefore, the development of novel assembled plasmonic gold nanostructures with the aim of reducing the applied laser power de...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ahijado Guzmán, Rubén, Bañares Morcillo, Luis, Guerrero Martínez, Andrés, López Montero, Iván, Tardajos Rodríguez, Gloria María, González Rubio, Guillermo, Izquierdo, Jesús G., Calzado Martín, Alicia, Calleja, Montserrat
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/23742
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/23742
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:544
Drug delivery systems
Laser radiation
Nanostructures
Pharmacology
Materiales
Química física (Química)
3312 Tecnología de Materiales
2307 Química Física
Descripción
Sumario:The search for efficient plasmonic photothermal therapies using nonharmful pulse laser irradiation at the near-infrared (NIR) is fundamental for biomedical cancer research. Therefore, the development of novel assembled plasmonic gold nanostructures with the aim of reducing the applied laser power density to a minimum through hot-spot-mediated cell photothermolysis is an ongoing challenge. We demonstrate that gold nanorods (Au NRs) functionalized at their tips with a pH-sensitive ligand assemble into oligomers within cell lysosomes through hydrogen-bonding attractive interactions. The unique intracellular features of the plasmonic oligomers allow us to significantly reduce the femtosecond laser power density and Au NR dose while still achieving excellent cell killing rates. The formation of gold tip-to-tip oligomers with longitudinal localized surface plasmon resonance bands at the NIR, obtained from low-aspect-ratio Au NRs close in resonance with 800 nm Ti:sapphire 90 fs laser pulses, was found to be the key parameter for realizing the enhanced plasmonic photothermal therapy.