Single-Cell Photothermal Ablation Using Wavelength-Matched Hollow Gold Nanostars with Adaptive Feedback Control
摘要
This paper dwells on the synthesis and preparation of hollow gold nanostars (HNSs) that are functionalized to precise and successful near-infrared (NIR) photothermal therapy. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak of synthesized HNSs at 825 ± 10 nm allowed deeper penetration of near-infrared light into the biological tissue. Epihedral growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibodies were conjugated to polyethylene glycol (PEG) and streptavidin–biotin in order to maximize stability and selectivity. This modification not only neutralized the zeta potential, resulting in better biostability and decreased nonspecific interactions. Dynamic light scattering demonstrated that the average hydrodynamic diameter of the particles was ~ 78 nm, which is suitable to be taken up by cells. In vitro analysis on an EGFR positive cell line (A431) demonstrated that 91.3% of the gold nanorods (AuNRs) were internalized, which is higher than the ~ 75 internalization rate of standard antibody conjugated AuNRs. When treated with laser light (1.5 W/cm2) the intracellular temperatures were raised to 53.2 ± 1.7 °C, which was not only sufficiently warm to lead to root cause ablation, but to create lesions with diameters of only 7.3 ± 1.2 µm. Whereas the fixed-power systems had a thermal fluctuation of 4.0 °C, a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) feedback control system reduced it to ± 1.0 °C. It is important to note that more than 96.5% of the neighboring cells were alive after 10 μm, and cytocompatibility was 92% without irradiation. These findings indicate that HNSs combined with feedback control provide a highly controlled, controllable, and efficient platform of selective photothermal cancer therapy.