Nano-enhanced optical delivery into targeted cells (Conference Presentation)

Abstract

Nano-enhanced optical field of gold nanoparticles allowed the use of a continuous wave (cw) laser beam for efficient delivery of exogenous impermeable materials into targeted cells. Using this Nano-enhanced Optical Delivery (NOD) method, we show that large molecules could be delivered with low power cw laser with exposure time ~ 1sec. At such low power (and exposure), the non-targeted cells (not bound to gold nanoparticles) were not adversely affected by the laser beam. Further, by varying the size of the gold nanoparticles, cells could be exclusively sensitized to selective wavelengths of laser beam. In contrast other nanoparticles, gold nanoparticles were found to have lower cytotoxicity, making it better suited for clinical NOD. Further, as compared with pulsed lasers, cw (diode) lasers are compact, easy-to-use and therefore, NOD using cw laser beam has significant translational potential for delivery of impermeable bio-molecules to tissues in different organs. We will present optimization of NOD parameters for delivering different molecules to different cells. Success of this NOD method may lead to a new clinical approach for treating AMD and RP patients with geographic atrophy in retina.