Development and molecular understanding of plasmonic photothermal therapy (PPTT) in combating cancer

Abstract

In cancer plasmonic photothermal therapy (PPTT), gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are used to convert light energy into localized heat leading to cancer cell death. Among plasmonic nanoparticles, gold nanorods (AuNRs) have been widely used as they absorb near-infrared (NIR) laser light (safe to biological system). Detailed background information was introduced in Chapter 1. Herein, 1) we developed new AuNRs formulations techniques, yielding better generation of AuNRs, for enhancing PPTT (Chapter 2). 2) We studied PPTT in vitro (Chapter 3). We developed novel surface conjugations, greatly enhance the endocytosis of gold nanoparticles and the PPTT efficacy in cells. We explored its molecular mechanism. We also studied the AuNPs’ effect on inhibiting cancer cells migration. 3) Moving from cells to animals (Chapter 4). We studied the efficacy, molecular mechanism and long-term toxicity of AuNRs in mice. Furthermore, the feasibility of PPTT has been verified on natural tumors in dogs and cats without any relapse or toxicity effects even after 1 year of treatment. In conclusion, together these data on cells, mice, cats and dogs demonstrated that our AuNR-PPTT inducing apoptosis is effective and safe for cancer therapy provides a strong framework for translation this approach to the clinics.