Bioconjugated gold nanorods for cellular imaging and therapy.

Abstract

Gold nanorods possess attractive properties which bring about tremendous scientific research. Besides the ease of synthesizing, the size of theses nanorods can be adjusted to suit various applications. In this project, the uniqueness of optical properties of gold nanorods was being demonstrated in cellular imaging and selective targeting photothermal therapy using MDA-MB-435 cells. With excitation of surface plasmon resonance upon light irradiation, gold nanorods are able to strongly scatter light with wavelength ranging from the visible to near-infrared of the electromagnetic spectrum, depending on the aspect ratio of the rods. This makes cellular imaging possible. Upon laser irradiation, the nanorods can absorb light energy efficiently via fast electron – photon relaxation and convert the energy into heat energy by rapid photon-photon relaxation which is then released to the surroundings. This constitutes the basis of photothermal therapy. The effectiveness of therapy was determined with the absence and presence of the nanorods. By introducing antibodies conjugated gold nanorods, the significance of selective targeting was also investigated.