Abstract
Photothermal therapy is an efficient cancer treatment method. The development of nanoagents with high biocompatibility and near-infrared (NIR) photoabsorption band is a prerequisite to the success of this method. However, the therapeutic efficiency of photothermal therapy is rather limited because most of the nanoagents have a low photothermal conversion efficiency. In this study, we aimed to develop CuFeS2 nanoassemblies with an excellent photothermal effect using the liquid-solid-solution method. The CuFeS2 nanoassemblies we developed are composed of ultrasmall CuFeS2 nanoparticles with an average size of 5 nm, which have strong NIR photoabsorption. Under NIR laser illumination at 808 nm at the output power intensity of 1.0 W cm-2, the CuFeS2 nanoassemblies could rapidly convert NIR light into heat, achieving a high photothermal conversion efficiency of 46.8%. When K7M2 cells were incubated with the CuFeS2 nanoassemblies and then exposed to irradiation, their viability decreased progressively as the concentration of the CuFeS2 nanoassemblies increased. Furthermore, a concentration of 40 ppm of CuFeS2 nanoassemblies was lethal to the cells. Importantly, after intratumoral injection of 40 ppm CuFeS2 nanoassemblies, the tumor showed a high contrast in the thermal image after laser irradiation, and tumor cells with condensed nuclei and a loss of cell morphology could be thermally ablated. Therefore, the CuFeS2 nanoassemblies we synthesized have a high biocompatibility and robust photothermal effect and can, thus, be utilized as a novel and efficient photothermal agent for tumor therapy.
Highlights
Photothermal therapy, which utilizes ex vivo near-infrared (NIR) lasers to irradiate photothermal materials within a tumor to generate heat (>45◦C) so that tumor cells can be thermally ablated, is an emerging treatment modality for killing cancer cells with high therapeutic efficiency (Zou et al, 2016; Vankayala and Hwang, 2018)
The aim of this study was to synthesize CuFeS2 nanoassemblies to be used as efficient photothermal nanoagents for photothermal therapy of cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo
The CuFeS2 nanoassemblies were prepared by using the liquidsolid-solution method, in which the metal ions of Cu2+ and Fe3+ reacted with the S precursor in a mixed solution containing deionized water, ethanol, oleic acid, sodium oleate, and PVP at 180◦C for 48 h
Summary
Photothermal therapy, which utilizes ex vivo near-infrared (NIR) lasers to irradiate photothermal materials within a tumor to generate heat (>45◦C) so that tumor cells can be thermally ablated, is an emerging treatment modality for killing cancer cells with high therapeutic efficiency (Zou et al, 2016; Vankayala and Hwang, 2018). CuS-based photothermal nanomaterials have been reported with varied ratios of Cu/S and different morphologies, such as CuS nanodots (Li et al, 2010), flower-like CuS superstructures (Tian et al, 2011b), Cu9S5 nanocrystals (Tian et al, 2011a), and Cu7.2S4 nanocrystals (Ling et al, 2014). These photothermal nanomaterials have exhibited strong photothermal effects under the irradiation of NIR lasers at different wavelengths (808, 915, 980, and 1064 nm). It is still necessary to develop semiconductor nanomaterials with high photothermal conversion efficiency and biocompatibility for photothermal therapy of malignant tumors
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