Abstract
Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) active gold nanostars represent an opportunity in the field of bioimaging and drug delivery. The combination of gold surface chemical versatility with the possibility to tune the optical properties changing the nanoparticles shape constitutes a multimodal approach for the investigation of the behavior of these carriers inside living cells. In this work, SERS active star-shaped nanoparticles were functionalized with doxorubicin molecules and covered with immuno-mimetic thiolated polyethylene glycol (PEG). Doxorubicin-conjugate gold nanoparticles show an intense Raman enhancement, a good stability in physiological conditions, and a low cytotoxicity. The strong adsorption of the anticancer drug doxorubicin in close contact with the gold nanostars surface enables their use as SERS tag imaging probes in vivo. Upon laser irradiation of the nanoparticles, a strong SERS signal is generated by the doxorubicin molecules close to the nanostars surface, enabling the localization of the nanoparticles inside the cells. After long time irradiation, the SERS signal drops, indicating the thermally driven delivery of the drug inside the cell. Therefore, the combination of SERS and laser scanning confocal microscopy is a powerful technique for the real-time analysis of drug release in living cells.
Highlights
Accepted: 21 November 2021Nanoparticle formulations for applications like imaging or drug delivery is currently a very attractive area of research [1,2,3]
Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) active gold nanostars represent an opportunity in the field of bioimaging and drug delivery
AuNP are widely used as optical contrast agents with different imaging techniques including Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering [14], Two
Summary
Accepted: 21 November 2021Nanoparticle formulations for applications like imaging or drug delivery is currently a very attractive area of research [1,2,3]. A plethora of nanomaterials have been investigated for the synthesis of optically active contrast agents for imaging applications [4,5,6,7,8] In this field of research, gold nanoparticles have emerged as one of the best candidates for the production of biocompatible, optically active, and functionalized nanocarriers and nanotags [9,10,11]. Gold nanoparticles (AuNP) display a strong absorption in the range from visible to NIR frequencies resulting from their surface plasmon resonance. For this reason, AuNP are widely used as optical contrast agents with different imaging techniques including Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering [14], Two
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