Abstract
We estimated the photothermal transduction efficiency of gold nanorod (GNR) solutions for different GNR concentrations and irradiation laser power. In particular, we verified that the degree of cell death area could be modulated by GNR concentration and irradiation laser power. The efficacy of GNR-produced photothermal ablation of cancer cells was evaluated by irradiating GNRs in the presence of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells with a near-infrared (NIR) laser at different laser power densities and irradiation times. GNR-induced photothermal ablation was applied successfully to cancer cells at various NIR laser power densities and irradiation times and was characterized with live-dead cell staining. Through these techniques, we established the system for not only verification of induced photothermal effect using NIR laser and thermocouple, but also identification of uptake efficiency for GNRs and cell viability using dark field and fluorescence imaging, respectively.
Highlights
Photothermal cancer therapy using nanostructures has been an attractive technique for the localized ablation of target cancer cells in a minimally invasive manner [1]
Greater temperature increases were observed with gold nanorod (GNR) solutions at higher GNR concentrations and higher NIR laser power density, whereas the temperature of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) solutions increased almost the same degree regardless of the GNP concentration
Linear fits of the temperature elevation rate of each GNR and GNP solution as functions of irradiated power density confirmed these observations (Figure 2(b))
Summary
Photothermal cancer therapy using nanostructures has been an attractive technique for the localized ablation of target cancer cells in a minimally invasive manner [1]. To maximize the photothermal effects, it is important to manufacture well-tailored nanostructures that can absorb NIR light well to transform into heat for localized target cell ablation [3,4,5]. GNRs are attractive because their longitudinal surface plasmon band is tunable by adjusting the aspect ratio of the rod (length/width) [9]. The longitudinal surface plasmon band for GNRs is located in the NIR region. Photon excitation of the surface plasmon band of GNRs by NIR light oscillates the free electron cloud. Substantial efforts have been devoted to photothermal therapy, most previous research has focused on target cell viability after photothermal agent internalization and NIR light exposure and has neglected characterization of the influence of specific conditions, for example, light power density, concentration of agents, and light exposure time, on the generation of heat and the subsequent temperature changes
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