In Vitro Photothermal Destruction of Cancer Cells Using Gold Nanorods and Pulsed-Train Near-Infrared Laser

Jui-Teng Lin,Hsinyu Lee,Yueh-Sheng Chiang,Hsia-Wei Liu,Guang-Hong Lin

doi:10.1155/2012/861385

Jui-Teng Lin, Hsinyu Lee + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/861385

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Abstract

We present a novel pulsed-train near-IR diode laser system with real-time temperature monitoring of the laser-heated cancer cell mixed in gold nanorod solution. Near-IR diode laser at 808 nm matching the gold nanorod absorption peak (with an aspect ratio about 4.0) was used in this study. Both surface and volume temperatures were measured and kept above 43°C, the temperature for cancer cells destruction. The irradiation time needed in our pulsed-train system with higher laser fluence for killing the cancel cells is about 1–3 minutes, much shorter than conventional methods (5–10 minutes). Cell viabilities in gold nanorod mixed and controlled solutions are studied by green fluorescence.

Highlights

The use of nanoparticles in medicine is one of the important applications of nanotechnology
near infrared (NIR) lasers for cancer therapy offers much deeper tissue penetration depths than that of visible lasers, they are limited to the normal tissues
We compare the surface temperature of the gold nanorods (GNRs) solution resulted from (a) a single-pulse laser and (b) pulsed-train which has a controlled laser on-off operation such that the surface temperature is kept at an average value of T∗. The benefit of this pulse train technique [11] includes the control of surface temperature at a given width to avoid overheating, and the increase of the volume temperature which is not available by conventional method

Summary

Introduction

The use of nanoparticles in medicine is one of the important applications of nanotechnology. NIR lasers for cancer therapy offers much deeper tissue penetration depths than that of visible lasers, they are limited to the normal tissues. The distribution of the GNRs aspect ratios and their concentrations inside the cancer tissues or tumors are difficult to be controlled for perfectly matching the laser peak absorption. To overcome these intrinsic difficulties, this paper introduces the novel techniques to improve the efficiency and selectivity of cancer therapy using NIR lasers [11]

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