The Key Lab of Health Chemistry and Molecular Diagnosis of Suzhou, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, P. R. China.
Nanoscale. 2018 Sep 13;10(35):16508-16520. doi: 10.1039/c8nr03503b.
In situ monitoring of the photothermal (PT) effect at the cellular level is of great importance in the photothermal (PT) treatment of cancer. Herein, we report a class of DNA-templated gold nanoparticle (GNP)-quantum dot (QD) complexes (GQC) for PT sensing in solution and in cancer cells in vitro. Specifically, the QD photoluminescence (PL) could be activated at elevated temperature with a wide thermo-responsive range between 45 °C and 70 °C, which fits the temperature threshold for effective cancer cell ablation. The general applicability of GQC for intracellular PT sensing is explored using three types of PT agents (gold nanorods (GNRs), gold nanostars (GNSs), and Prussian blue nanoparticles (PBNPs)) with various PT performances. We show that the intracellular QD PL is gradually activated with increasing near-infrared (NIR) irradiation time, providing a good correlation with the surrounding medium temperature for PT sensing. Moreover, we demonstrate that the GQC sensor could be used for specific photothermal labeling and imaging of cancer cells. The QD PL signal is retained in the cells post-treatment, thereby potentially enabling persistent photothermal labeling of cancer cells for post-treatment cell tracking and imaging-guided therapy evaluation.
在细胞水平上原位监测光热（PT）效应对于癌症的光热（PT）治疗非常重要。在此，我们报告了一类 DNA 模板金纳米粒子（GNP）-量子点（QD）复合物（GQC），用于溶液中和体外癌细胞中的 PT 传感。具体而言，QD 光致发光（PL）可以在升高的温度下被激活，具有 45°C 至 70°C 之间的宽热响应范围，这适合有效消融癌细胞的温度阈值。使用三种类型的 PT 剂（金纳米棒（GNRs）、金纳米星（GNSs）和普鲁士蓝纳米颗粒（PBNPs）），具有不同的 PT 性能，探索了 GQC 用于细胞内 PT 传感的通用性。我们表明，随着近红外（NIR）辐照时间的增加，细胞内 QD PL 逐渐被激活，为 PT 传感提供了与周围介质温度的良好相关性。此外，我们证明了 GQC 传感器可用于特定的光热标记和癌细胞成像。QD PL 信号在细胞治疗后保留在细胞中，从而有可能实现对癌细胞的持续光热标记，用于治疗后细胞跟踪和成像引导的治疗评估。
