Abstract
A facile strategy to fabricate gold nanorod@polyacrylic acid/calcium phosphate (AuNR@PAA/CaP) yolk–shell nanoparticles (NPs) composed with a PAA/CaP shell and an AuNR yolk is reported. The as-obtained AuNR@PAA/CaP yolk–shell NPs possess ultrahigh doxorubicin (DOX) loading capability (1 mg DOX/mg NPs), superior photothermal conversion property (26%) and pH/near-infrared (NIR) dual-responsive drug delivery performance. The released DOX continuously increased due to the damage of the CaP shell at low pH values. When the DOX-loaded AuNR@PAA/CaP yolk–shell NPs were exposed to NIR irradiation, a burst-like drug release occurs owing to the heat produced by the AuNRs. Furthermore, AuNR@PAA/CaP yolk–shell NPs are successfully employed for synergic dual-mode X-ray computed tomography/photoacoustic imaging and chemo-photothermal cancer therapy. Therefore, this work brings new insights for the synthesis of multifunctional nanomaterials and extends theranostic applications.
Highlights
Multifunctional nanoparticles (NPs) with complementary capacities of multimodal imaging and therapeutic functions have drawn extensive attention in biomedical areas [1–6]
The cells were divided into four groups: group 1 with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) only; group 2 incubated with AuNR@PAA/calcium phosphate (CaP) yolk–shell NPs (25 lg mL-1); group 3 incubated with NIR; group 4 incubated with both NPs and NIR laser
energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectrum confirms that the AuNR@PAA/CaP yolk–shell NPs are composed of Au, Ca, C, P, O (Fig. S5, ESI)
Summary
Multifunctional nanoparticles (NPs) with complementary capacities of multimodal imaging and therapeutic functions have drawn extensive attention in biomedical areas [1–6]. It is absolutely imperative to propose a simple synthetic method for fabricating CaPbased multifunctional NPs that possess the capacities of simultaneous dual-mode imaging diagnosis and chemophotothermal therapy. Lu and co-workers prepared yolk–shell AuNR@hollow periodic mesoporous organosilica nanospheres only for chemo-photothermal therapy of breast cancer [30] Their materials still have problems that need to be tackled including large particle size, poor biocompatibility and low drug loading capability. Developing a facile synthetic strategy to fabricate welldispersed AuNR core/CaP shell NPs with ultrahigh doxorubicin (DOX) loading capability and pH/NIR dual-responsive drug delivery performance for dual-mode CT/PA imaging and synergic chemo-photothermal therapy of cancer cells still remains a great challenge. We have successfully developed for the first time a mild and facile route to fabricate AuNR@PAA/CaP yolk–shell NPs for synergistic dual-mode CT/PA imaging and chemo-photothermal therapy of cancer cells
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