Abstract
Owing to their unique optical properties such as large absorption and scattering cross section and large enhancement of electromagnetic field at the surface, plasmonic nanostructures have received extensive attention as a highly promising class of materials for nano-oncology. Most of the existing plasmonic nanostructures require extensive post-synthesis treatments and biofunctionalization routines to mitigate their cytotoxicity and/or make them tumor-specific. Here, we report one-pot synthesis of a novel class of plasmonic nanostructures, namely, gold nanoraspberries (GRBs) with tunable size and localized surface plasmon resonance by using a naturally abundant polysaccharide, chitosan, which acts as a template and capping agent. Significantly, the GRBs, which do not require any further biofunctionalization, exhibit excellent selectivity to tumor cells, thus enabling locoregional therapy at the cellular level. We demonstrate the tumor-selectivity of GRBs by photothermal ablation of tumor cells selectively from their co-culture with normal cells. The simple, scalable and tumor-selective nature of GRBs makes them excellent candidates for translational plasmonics-based nanomedicine.
Highlights
Nanomedicine holds great promise in revolutionizing the way we diagnose, image, and treat complex diseases such as cancer[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]
The gold nanoraspberries (GRBs) were reasonably monodisperse with a diameter of 130 ± 1 3 nm
The size of GRBs can be varied by altering the concentration of chitosan in the growth solution
Summary
Naveen Gandra[1,2], Christopher Portz[1], Saide Z. Targeted delivery of nanostructures to tumor site often requires further modification of the nanostructures with disease recognition bioreceptors such as antibodies and aptamers This modification requires additional steps such as production, purification, conjugation, and sterilization of nanotherapeutic platforms. We report one-pot synthesis of gold nanoraspberries (GRBs) with localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in the near infrared (NIR) therapeutic window (650–900 nm) using chitosan, a naturally abundant polysaccharide, as a biocompatible stabilizing agent, obviating the need for conventional toxic surfactants and multi-step ligand-replacement procedures (Fig. 1A). The GRBs synthesized using chitosan exhibited high (i) serum stability; (ii) biocompatibility; (iii) tunable optical properties; (iv) pH sensitivity; and (v) tumour selectivity, which are highly desirable for successful translation of plasmonic nanomedicine into routine medical practices
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