Abstract
Theranostics based on two-photon excitation of therapeutics in the NIR region is an emerging and powerful tool in cancer therapy since this radiation deeply penetrates healthy biological tissues and produces selective cell death. Aggregates of gold nanoparticles coated with glutathione corona functionalized with the dansyl chromophore (a-DG-AuNPs) were synthesized and found efficient nanodevice for applications in photothermal therapy (PTT). Actually the nanoparticle aggregation enhances the quenching of radiative excitation and the consequent conversion into heat. The a-DG-AuNPs are readily internalized in Hep G2 where the chromophore acts as both antenna and transducer of the NIR radiation under two-photons excitation, determining efficient cell ablation via photothermal effect.
Highlights
Theranostics based on two-photon excitation of therapeutics in the NIR region is an emerging and powerful tool in cancer therapy since this radiation deeply penetrates healthy biological tissues and produces selective cell death
The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis shows that the synthesized nanoparticles are of mean size of 2.5 nm with narrow size distribution (Fig. 1a,b); in agreement with this result, the reflections for crystalline gold (Fig. 1c) expected in the powder wide-angle x-ray diffraction (WAXD) pattern (Fig. 1c)[25], and the typical plasmonic band at ≈ 520 nm, in the UV–Vis spectra (Fig. 1d), are too broad to be d etected[26]
Hydrodynamic size and size distribution were assessed in deionized water or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solutions by dynamic light scattering (DLS) using a concentration of 700 μg/mL
Summary
Theranostics based on two-photon excitation of therapeutics in the NIR region is an emerging and powerful tool in cancer therapy since this radiation deeply penetrates healthy biological tissues and produces selective cell death. Aggregates of gold nanoparticles coated with glutathione corona functionalized with the dansyl chromophore (a-DG-AuNPs) were synthesized and found efficient nanodevice for applications in photothermal therapy (PTT). The a-DG-AuNPs are readily internalized in Hep G2 where the chromophore acts as both antenna and transducer of the NIR radiation under two-photons excitation, determining efficient cell ablation via photothermal effect. Of thermal denaturation of proteins, mechanical stress of the membrane or bubble formation[19] This absorption dramatically decreases in the range of 800–1,000 nm where poor performances in PPT were observed under laser excitation[5,6,7,8,9,10,13,14]. After AuNPs internalization, irradiation with pulsed-laser in the NIR spectral window induced efficient cell ablation that was greater with DG-AuNPs than with G-AuNPs
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