IR780 loaded gelatin‐PEG coated gold core silica shell nanorods for cancer‐targeted photothermal/photodynamic therapy

• Autor(a) principal: Gonçalves, Ariana
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Rodrigues, Ana Carolina Félix, Fernandes, Natanael, Diogo, Duarte de Melo, Ferreira, Paula, Moreira, André F., Correia, I.J.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/12573
• topic: Gelatin; Gold core silica shell nanoparticles; IR780; PEG‐CH3; Photodynamic therapy; Photothermal therapy

Gold core silica shell (AuMSS) nanorods present excellent physicochemical proper-ties that allow their application as photothermal and drug delivery agents. Herein,AuMSS nanorods were dual‐functionalized with Polyethylene glycol methyl ether(PEG‐CH3) and Gelatin (GEL) to enhance both the colloidal stability and uptake byHeLa cancer cells. Additionally, the AuMSS nanorods were combined for the firsttime with IR780 (a heptamethine cyanine molecule) and its photothermal and pho-todynamic capacities were determined. The obtained results reveal that the en-capsulation of IR780 (65 μg per AuMSS mg) increases the photothermal conversionefficiency of AuMSS nanorods by 10%, and this enhanced heat generation wasmaintained even after three irradiation cycles with a NIR (808 nm) laser. Moreover,the IR780‐loaded AuMSS/T‐PEG‐CH3/T‐GEL presented≈2‐times higher uptake inHeLa cells, when compared to the non‐coated counterparts, and successfullymediated the light‐triggered generation of reactive oxygen species. Overall, thecombination of photodynamic and photothermal therapy mediated by IR780‐loadedAuMSS/T‐PEG‐CH3/T‐GEL nanorods effectively promoted the ablation of HeLacancer cells.