Lentinan in-situ coated tungsten oxide nanorods as a nanotherapeutic agent for low power density photothermal cancer therapy.

Development of high photothermal performance and biocompatible nanotherapeutic agents is of great importance for photothermal cancer treatment. In this paper, we have developed lentinan decorated tungsten oxide nanorods (WO@LTN NRs) via a mild one-step solvothermal route. Owing to the numerous surface hydroxyl groups of polymer chains, the presence of lentinan layer in the surface of WO NRs lead to good biocompatibility. The lentinan layer also affects the crystal structure of WO and improves near-infrared absorption (~1.7 × 10 M cm at 980 nm), which is two orders of higher than previously reported PEGylated WO nanowires. Even under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation at a very low power density of 0.4 W/cm, the temperature of WO@LTN NRs aqueous dispersion (125 μg/mL) could increase by 15.1 °C. The photothermal conversion efficiency of WO@LTN NRs reaches 33.86%, which is higher than previously reported WO hierarchical nanostructures (28.1%). Importantly, when cancer cells were treated with WO@LTN NRs (200 μg/mL) and 980 nm laser (0.4 W/cm), a significant photo-induced cell killing behavior was observed. This work demonstrates that WO@LTN NRs have the potential for precise cancer treatment.