Mesoporous Silica-coated Gold Nanorods Research Articles

Theranostics: Mesoporous Silica‐Coated Gold Nanorods as a Light‐Mediated Multifunctional Theranostic Platform for Cancer Treatment (Adv. Mater. 11/2012)

On page 1418 X. Wu, C. Chen, and co-workers develop mesoporous silica-coated gold nanorods (Au@SiO2) as a versatile platform for imaging, chemotherapeutics, and hyperthermia. The Au@SiO2 thus keeps both the unique functions of mesoporous silica nanoparticles and gold nanorods, and also provides a new functionality: lightcontrolled drug release. With integrated functions, such multifunctional theranostic systems are critical to optimize therapeutic efficacy and to improve safety of therapeutic regimes. They will provide more opportunities for on-demand therapy, paving the way to personalized medicine.

Mesoporous Silica‐Coated Gold Nanorods as a Light‐Mediated Multifunctional Theranostic Platform for Cancer Treatment

Mesoporous silica-coated gold nanorods (Au@SiO(2)) are developed as a promising and versatile theranostic platform for cancer treatment. Intracellular localization of Au@SiO(2) is visualized through two-photon imaging. With doxorubicin hydrochloride loaded, Au@SiO(2)-DOX show two light-mediated therapeutic modes: low power density laser-triggered drug release for chemotherapy, and high power density laser-induced hyperthermia, which suggest the potential for in-vivo applications.

Mesoporous silica-coated gold nanorods with embedded indocyanine green for dual mode X-ray CT and NIR fluorescence imaging

Indocyanine green-loaded mesoporous silica-coated gold nanorods (ICG-loaded Au@SiO2) were prepared for the dual capability of X-ray computed tomography (CT) and fluorescence imaging. X-ray CT scanning showed that ICG-loaded Au@SiO2 could provide significant contrast enhancement; Near-infrared fluorescence generated by the nanomaterial was present up to 12 h post intratumoral injection, thus enabling ICG-loaded Au@SiO2 to be used as a promising dual mode imaging contrast agent. Multiplexed images can be more easily obtained with this novel type of multimodal nanostructure compared with traditional contrast agents. The dual mode imaging probe has great potential for use in applications such as cancer targeting, molecular imaging in combination with radiotherapy, and photothermolysis.

Mesoporous silica-coated gold nanorods: towards sensitive colorimetric sensing of ascorbic acid via target-induced silver overcoating

This article describes a nonaggregation-based colorimetric assay of ascorbic acid by tailoring the optical properties of mesoporous silica-coated gold nanorods (MS GNRs) via silver overcoating. The colorimetric measurement of ascorbic acid (AA) concentration strongly relies on the fact that the blue shift effect of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak of MS GNRs is gradually enlarged with the increase of AA amount. The limit of detection is determined to be 49 nM, which is comparable to that of quantum dots (QDs)-based fluorimetric methods.

Chemical redox-regulated mesoporous silica-coated goldnanorods for colorimetric probing of Hg2+ and S2−

The past a few years have witnessed the wide use of metallic nanoparticles as ideal reporters for colorimetric detection, which generally involves an analyte-triggered alteration of aggregation degree of applied nanoparticles, and thus the change of colloidal color. However, these aggregation-based colorimetric probe are associated with a number of drawbacks, including poor stability of nanoaggregates, requirement of complicated functionalization and non-linearity of output signals. To address these problems, we herein employ mesoporous silica-coated gold nanorods (MS AuNRs) as novel nanocomposites for non-aggregation-based label-free colorimetric sensing relying on their chemical redox-modulated surface chemistry. In our sensing system, Hg(2+) ions are reduced to Hg(0) depositing on the surface of MS AuNPs and result in a great color change of MS AuNRs, while the subsequent introduction of S(2-) leads to a reverse process owing to the extraction of Hg(0) by S(2-). The experimental results for colorimetric sensing of Hg(2+) and S(2-) imply considerable sensitivity and specificity, suggesting the high potential of our approach for rapid environmental monitoring and bioanalysis in the future.

Dual-mode probe based on mesoporous silica coated gold nanorods for targeting cancer cells

A dual-mode imaging probe for targeting cancer cells has been fabricated based on mesoporous silica coated gold nanorods (MS-GNRs) for the first time. In this probe, fluorescence and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) signals can be generated independently by using different excitation wavelengths. To investigate the targeting performance of the probe, folic acid (FA) is conjugated on the outer surfaces of MS-GNRs as a targeting ligand and HeLa cells were used as model cancer cells because they overexpress folate receptors (FRs). The endocytosis mechanism was verified by competing experiments with free FA through both fluorescence images and SERS mappings. Moreover, the cytotoxicity of the probe was remarkably reduced in comparison with the GNRs without the silica shell as proved by the results of MTT assay. Compared with traditional imaging probes, this new type of nanoprobe has great potential for multiplexed imaging in living cells, which can be easily realized by using fluorescence and SERS signals.

Stable and Functionable Mesoporous Silica-Coated Gold Nanorods as Sensitive Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) Nanosensors

Core-shell structured Au NRs with a surface-exposed gold core and a mesoporous silica shell (MS Au NRs) were demonstrated as a promising platform for localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) based molecular sensing. Mesoporous silica shell not only allows the Au NRs core to be directly exposed to their surrounding environment but also stabilizes Au NRs dispersion in various water-organic mixtures and pure organic solvents. The LSPR band of MS Au NRS displays a stable and linear response in spectral shift to the changes in their surrounding refractive index with a sensitivity of 325 nm/RIU. To demonstrate the application of MS Au NRs as LSPR nanosensors in molecular sensing, the plasmon response to molecular adsorbates (GSH) was demonstrated. MS Au NRs provide a more stable and sensitive response than CTAB-capped Au NRs in GSH sensing. In addition, we have also demonstrated that the LSPR response of Au NRs is highly sensitive to changes of local refractive index in mesoporous silica shell, which renders the feasibility of using MS Au NRs as effective molecule-sensing platforms when mesoporous silica shells were functionalized with various chemical and biological ligands.