Multifunctional Gold Nanoshells on Silica Nanorattles: A Platform for the Combination of Photothermal Therapy and Chemotherapy with Low Systemic Toxicity

摘要

Plasmonic nanomaterials, especially those that can convert near-infrared (NIR) light into heat, have been developed as photothermal agents for localized hyperthermia cancer therapy. After Halas's research group first applied a coating of gold nanoshells on solid silica spheres for tumor ablation, a series of NIR-light-absorbing plasmonic nanomaterials have been fabricated to kill tumorigenic cells without damaging normal cells, such as gold nanorods (GNRs), gold nano-cages, Au_xAg_(1-x) dendrites, gold nanoshells on polystyrene spheres, assembled gold nanoparticles, and many multifunctional nanocomposites.