Preparation of photothermal responsive and ROS generative gold nanocages for cancer therapy

Abstract The development of photothermal responsive and ROS generative nanoplatform is always attracting for cancer therapy. In this work, we propose a strategy of preparation of IR780 loaded gold nanocages using linkage of Pluronic F127 as anticancer nanoplatform (AuNCs-Plu-IR780). The obtained results showed that the AuNCs-Plu-IR780 have IR780 loading efficiency and loading content were 21.7% and 5.66%, respectively. Thermo photographic research proved that the obtained AuNCs-Plu-IR780 were photothermal responsive under near-infrared laser irradiation and remained photostability after several cycles of laser irradiation. This advantage overcomes the optical instability of IR780 and enhances the photothermal efficiency of AuNCs. MTT and cellular uptake research further proved that AuNCs-Plu-IR780 were ROS generative, and the related apoptosis of MCF-7 cells were observed. Animal experiments showed that the gathered AuNCs-Plu-IR780 reached a photothermal responsive temperature up to 89.6 °C at the tumor site, which could almost ablate the tumor with volumes as large as 1500 mm3 without recurrence during a 20 days treatment period. These results confirm that the photothermal responsive and ROS generative AuNCs-Plu-IR780 have a brilliant prospect in the field of cancer photothermal therapy.