Abstract
We describe an innovative form of polymer micro-tubes with diverse functions including biodegradation, magnetic manipulation, and photothermal effect that employs and activates photothermal therapy to target cancer cells. The micro-tube comprised soybean protein isolate, poly-l-glutamic acid, magnetite nanoparticles, plus gold nanoparticles. Through electrostatic force, these components, with opposite charges, formed pairs of layers in the pores of the template, various bilayers of soybean protein isolate and poly-l-glutamic acid served as the biodegradable building wall to each micro-tube. The layers of magnetite nanoparticle functionalized micro-tubes enabled the micro-tube manipulate to target the cancer cells by using an external magnetic field. The photo-thermal effect of the layer of gold nanoparticles on the outer surface of the micro-tubes, when under irradiation and when brought about by the near infrared radiation, elevated each sample’s temperature. In addition, and when under the exposure of the near infrared radiation, the elevated temperature of the suspension of the micro-tubes, likewise with a concentration of 0.2 mg/mL, and similarly with a power of 2 W and as well maintained for 10 min, elevated the temperature of the suspension beyond 42 °C. Such temperatures induced apoptosis of target cancer cells through the effect of photothermal therapy. The findings assert that structured micro-tubes have a promising application as a photothermal agent. From this assertion, the implications are that this multifunctional agent will significantly improve the methodology for cancer diagnosis and therapy.
Highlights
Photothermal therapy offers a promising treatment for premalignant and early-stage cancer due to its minimal and diffusive nature and deep tissue penetration [1,2]
To form the durable polymer building walls of the micro-tubes with poly-L-glutamic acid (PGA) on the inner and outer surfaces of the micro-tubes, 14.5 bilayers of (PGA/soybean protein isolate (SPI)) thin film was placed into the template pores
(a) This photograph showing the aggregation of the Au NPs-(PGA/SPI)14.5-Fe3O4 NPs micro-tubes under the external magnetic; (b–d) Time-lapse images illustrating the movement of a single micro-tube to the HeLa cells, the blue line shows the trajectory of the locomotion of the micro-tube to the HeLa cells under the external magnetic field
Summary
Photothermal therapy offers a promising treatment for premalignant and early-stage cancer due to its minimal and diffusive nature and deep tissue penetration [1,2]. The photothermal therapy offer challenges to develop degradable PTAs with a controllable location to human tissue. To address this problem the experiment employed a form of polymer micro-tubes with diverse functions including biodegradation, magnetic manipulation, and photothermal effect; the experiment employed and activated photothermal effect to target cancer cells. With regard to photothermal agents, most past research efforts, found within the applicable research literature, have focused on spherical particles, such as porphyrin bilayer cerasomes [6], together with micro-capsules [7] In this experiment, the tubular structure of photothermal agents provided an opportunity to develop multifunctional micro-tubes by the application of inner and outer surfaces [8]. The findings offer new candidates promising treatment for premalignant and early-stage cancer by offering photothermal therapy in this new practical way
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