Gold nanoparticle trapping and delivery for therapeutic applications

Self-assisted optothermal trapping of gold nanorods under two-photon excitation

We report a self-assisted optothermal trapping and patterning of gold nanorods (GNRs) on glass surfaces with a femtosecond laser. We show that GNRs are not only the trapping targets, but also can enhance the optothermal trapping of other particles. This trapping phenomenon is the net result of thermophoresis and a convective flow caused by localized heating. The heating is due to the conversion of absorbed photons into heat at GNR's longitudinal surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) wavelength. First, we investigated the optothermal trapping of GNRs at their LSPR wavelength on the glass surface with as low as 0.5 mW laser power. The trapping range was observed to be larger than a typical field of view, e.g. 210 µm  ×  210 µm here. Second, by adjusting the distance between the laser focus and the glass surface, ring patterns of GNRs on the glass surface were obtained. These patterns could be controlled by the laser power and the numerical aperture of the microscope objective. Moreover, we examined the spectral emission of GNRs under different trapping conditions using the spectral phasor approach to reveal the temperature and association status of GNRs. Our study will help understanding manipulation of flows in solution and in biological systems that can be applied in future investigations of GNR-induced heating and flows.

Development of bimetallic (Zn@Au) nanoparticles as potential PET-imageable radiosensitizers

PURPOSE

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are being investigated actively for various applications in cancer diagnosis and therapy. As an effort to improve the imaging of GNPs in vivo, the authors developed bimetallic hybrid Zn@Au NPs with zinc cores and gold shells, aiming to render them in vivo visibility through positron emission tomography (PET) after the proton activation of the zinc core as well as capability to induce radiosensitization through the secondary electrons produced from the gold shell when irradiated by various radiation sources.

METHODS

Nearly spherical zinc NPs (∼5-nm diameter) were synthesized and then coated with a ∼4.25-nm gold layer to make Zn@Au NPs (∼13.5-nm total diameter). 28.6 mg of these Zn@Au NPs was deposited (∼100 μm thick) on a thin cellulose target and placed in an aluminum target holder and subsequently irradiated with 14.15-MeV protons from a GE PETtrace cyclotron with 5-μA current for 5 min. After irradiation, the cellulose matrix with the NPs was placed in a dose calibrator to assess the induced radioactivity. The same procedure was repeated with 8-MeV protons. Gamma ray spectroscopy using an high-purity germanium detector was conducted on a very small fraction (<1 mg) of the irradiated NPs for each proton energy. In addition to experimental measurements, Monte Carlo simulations were also performed with radioactive Zn@Au NPs and solid GNPs of the same size irradiated with 160-MeV protons and 250-kVp x-rays.

RESULTS

The authors measured 168 μCi of activity 32 min after the end of bombardment for the 14.15-MeV proton energy sample using the (66)Ga setting on a dose calibrator; activity decreased to 2 μCi over a 24-h period. For the 8-MeV proton energy sample, PET imaging was additionally performed for 5 min after a 12-h delay. A 12-h gamma ray spectrum showed strong peaks at 511 keV (2.05 × 10(6) counts) with several other peaks of smaller magnitude for each proton energy sample. PET imaging showed strong PET signals from mostly decaying (66)Ga. The Monte Carlo results showed that radioactive Zn@Au NPs and solid GNPs provided similar characteristics in terms of their secondary electron spectra when irradiated.

CONCLUSIONS

The Zn@Au NPs developed in this investigation have the potential to be used as PET-imageable radiosensitizers for radiotherapy applications as well as PET tracers for molecular imaging applications.

Cytotoxicity of various types of gold-mesoporous silica nanoparticles in human breast cancer cells

Recently, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have shown promising biological applications due to their unique electronic and optical properties. However, the potential toxicity of AuNPs remains a major hurdle that impedes their use in clinical settings. Mesoporous silica is very suitable for the use as a coating material for AuNPs and might not only reduce the cytotoxicity of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide-coated AuNPs but might also facilitate the loading and delivery of drugs. Herein, three types of rod-like gold-mesoporous silica nanoparticles (termed bare AuNPs, core-shell Au@mSiO2NPs, and Janus Au@mSiO2NPs) were specially designed, and the effects of these AuNPs on cellular uptake, toxic behavior, and mechanism were then systematically studied. Our results indicate that bare AuNPs exerted higher toxicity than the Au@mSiO2NPs and that Janus Au@mSiO2NPs exhibited the lowest toxicity in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells, consistent with the endocytosis capacity of the nanoparticles, which followed the order, bare AuNPs > core-shell Au@mSiO2NPs > Janus Au@mSiO2NPs. More importantly, the AuNPs-induced apoptosis of MCF-7 cells exhibited features that were characteristic of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, activation of c-Jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK) phosphorylation, an enhanced Bax-to-Bcl-2 ratio, and loss of the mitochondrial membrane potential. Simultaneously, cytochrome c was released from mitochondria, and the caspase-3/9 cascade was activated. Moreover, both ROS scavenger (N-acetylcysteine) and JNK inhibitor (SP600125) partly blocked the induction of apoptosis in all AuNPs-treated cells. Taken together, these findings suggest that all AuNPs induce apoptosis through the ROS-/JNK-mediated mitochondrial pathway. Thus, Janus Au@mSiO2NPs exhibit the potential for applications in biomedicine, thus aiding the clinical translation of AuNPs.

Spectral properties and dynamics of gold nanorods revealed by EMCCD-based spectral phasor method

Gold nanorods (NRs) with tunable plasmon-resonant absorption in the near-infrared region have considerable advantages over organic fluorophores as imaging agents due to their brightness and lack of photobleaching. However, the luminescence spectral properties of NRs have not been fully characterized at the single particle level due to lack of proper analytic tools. Here, we present a spectral phasor analysis method that allows investigations of NRs' spectra at single particle level showing the spectral variance and providing spatial information during imaging. The broad phasor distribution obtained by the spectral phasor analysis indicates that spectra of NRs are different from particle to particle. NRs with different spectra can be identified in images with high spectral resolution. The spectral behaviors of NRs under different imaging conditions, for example, different excitation powers and wavelengths, were revealed by our laser-scanning multiphoton microscope using a high-resolution spectrograph with imaging capability. Our results prove that the spectral phasor method is an easy and efficient tool in hyper-spectral imaging analysis to unravel subtle changes of the emission spectrum. We applied this method to study the spectral dynamics of NRs during direct optical trapping and by optothermal trapping. Interestingly, different spectral shifts were observed in both trapping phenomena.