Light-Induced Content Release from Plasmon-Resonant Liposomes

摘要

Stable encapsulation and controlled release remain the main challenges in the development of many promising diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. Here, we describe encapsulation of a model compound in thermosenstive liposomes, which were then coated with gold to form plasmon-resonant shells with optical resonances tunable in the near-infrared range. When exposed to 1064 nm laser light, these liposomes released their content in a spectrally-dependent manner, that is, liposomes with stronger resonance at the laser wavelength required less energy to facilitate full content release. This spectrally addressable release may find applications in the delivery of diagnostic and therapeutic agents or, more broadly, in developing a technological basis of nanomedicine.