School of Life Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.
Sci Rep. 2013;3:2360. doi: 10.1038/srep02360.
Ultrasound (US) imaging provides a valuable opportunity to administer photothermal therapy (PTT) of cancer with real-time guidance to ensure proper targeting, but only a few theranostic agents were developed by physically grafting near infrared (NIR)-absorbing inorganic nanomaterials to ready-made ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) for US imaging guided PTT. In this paper, NIR absorbing hollow microspheres were generated from polypyrrole merely using a facile one-step microemulsion method. It was found that the obtained polypyrrole hollow microspheres (PPyHMs) can act as an efficient theranostic agent not only to enhance US imaging greatly, but also exhibit excellent photohyperthermic effects. The contrast consistently sustained the echo signals for no less than 5 min and the NIR laser light ablated the tumor completely within two weeks in the presence of PPyHMs. More importantly, no use of additional NIR absorber substantially minimizes an onetime dose of the theranostic agent.
超声（US）成像是一种很有价值的方法，它可以提供实时指导，以确保适当的靶向，对癌症进行光热治疗（PTT），但只有少数治疗剂是通过将近红外（NIR）吸收的无机纳米材料物理接枝到现成的超声造影剂（UCAs）上来开发的，用于超声成像引导的 PTT。在本文中，仅仅使用一种简单的一步微乳液法，就从聚吡咯中生成了 NIR 吸收空心微球。结果发现，所得到的聚吡咯空心微球（PPyHMs）不仅可以极大地增强超声成像，而且还表现出优异的光热治疗效果。在 PPyHMs 的存在下，对比剂持续的回声信号至少维持 5 分钟，并且在两周内 NIR 激光完全消融了肿瘤。更重要的是，无需使用额外的 NIR 吸收剂，这大大减少了治疗剂的一次性剂量。
