Morton Jennifer G, Day Emily S, Halas Naomi J, West Jennifer L
Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2010;624:101-17. doi: 10.1007/978-1-60761-609-2_7.
Cancer is a leading cause of death in the United States and contributes to yearly rising health care costs. Current methods of treating cancer involve surgical removal of easily accessible tumors, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. These methods do not always result in full treatment of the cancer and can in many cases damage healthy cells both surrounding the tissue area and systemically. Nanoshells are optically tunable core/shell nanoparticles that can be fabricated to strongly absorb in the near-infrared (NIR) region where light transmits deeply into tissue. When injected systemically, these particles have been shown to accumulate in the tumor due to the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect and induce photothermal ablation of the tumor when irradiated with an NIR laser. Tumor specificity can be increased via functionalizing the nanoshell surface with tumor-targeting moieties. Nanoshells can also be made to strongly scatter light and therefore can be used in various imaging modalities such as dark-field microscopy and optical coherence tomography (OCT).
癌症是美国主要的死亡原因之一，且导致医疗保健成本逐年上升。目前的癌症治疗方法包括手术切除易于触及的肿瘤、放射治疗和化疗。这些方法并不总能完全治愈癌症，而且在许多情况下会损害肿瘤组织区域周围及全身的健康细胞。纳米壳是光学可调谐的核/壳纳米颗粒，可被制造为在近红外（NIR）区域具有强吸收能力，该区域的光能够深入穿透组织。全身注射后，由于增强的渗透和滞留（EPR）效应，这些颗粒已被证明会在肿瘤中积累，并在近红外激光照射下诱导肿瘤的光热消融。通过用肿瘤靶向部分对纳米壳表面进行功能化，可以提高肿瘤特异性。纳米壳还可以被制造成具有强散射光的特性，因此可用于各种成像方式，如暗场显微镜和光学相干断层扫描（OCT）。
