Suchergebnisse

The search for efficient plasmonic photothermal therapies using nonharmful pulse laser irradiation at the near-infrared (NIR) is fundamental for biomedical cancer research. Therefore, the development of novel assembled plasmonic gold nanostructures with the aim of reducing the applied laser power density to a minimum through hot-spot-mediated cell photothermolysis is an ongoing challenge. We demonstrate that gold nanorods (Au NRs) functionalized at their tips with a pH-sensitive ligand assemble into oligomers within cell lysosomes through hydrogen-bonding attractive interactions. The unique intracellular features of the plasmonic oligomers allow us to significantly reduce the femtosecond laser power density and Au NR dose while still achieving excellent cell killing rates. The formation of gold tip-to-tip oligomers with longitudinal localized surface plasmon resonance bands at the NIR, obtained from low-aspect-ratio Au NRs close in resonance with 800 nm Ti:sapphire 90 fs laser pulses, was found to be the key parameter for realizing the enhanced plasmonic photothermal therapy. ; This work has been funded by the Spanish MINECO (MAT2014-59678-R and CTQ2012-37404-C02-01) and the Madrid Regional Government (S2013/MIT-2807). A.C.-M. and M.C. and I.L.-M. acknowledge the financial support of the ERC Starting Grants "NANOFORCELLS" (ERC-StG-2011-278860) and "MITOCHON" (ERC-StG-2013-338133). A.G.-M. and I.L.-M. acknowledge receipt of Ramón y Cajal Fellowships from the Spanish MINECO. G.G.-R. acknowledges receipt of the FPI Fellowship from the Spanish MINECO. ; Peer reviewed