title: Cu-Au alloy nanostructures coated with aptamers: a simple, stable and highly effective platform for in vivo cancer theranostics.
abstract: As a star material in cancer theranostics, photoresponsive gold (Au) nanostructures may still have drawbacks, such as low thermal conductivity, irradiation-induced melting effect and high cost. To solve the problem, copper (Cu) with a much higher thermal conductivity and lower cost was introduced to generate a novel Cu-Au alloy nanostructure produced by a simple, gentle and one-pot synthetic method. Having the good qualities of both Cu and Au, the irregularly-shaped Cu-Au alloy nanostructures showed several advantages over traditional Au nanorods, including a broad and intense near-infrared (NIR) absorption band from 400 to 1100 nm, an excellent heating performance under laser irradiation at different wavelengths and even a notable photostability against melting. Then, via a simple conjugation of fluorophore-labeled aptamers on the Cu-Au alloy nanostructures, active targeting and signal output were simultaneously introduced, thus constructing a theranostic platform based on fluorophore-labeled, aptamer-coated Cu-Au alloy nanostructures. By using human leukemia CCRF-CEM cancer and Cy5-labeled aptamer Sgc8c (Cy5-Sgc8c) as the model, a selective fluorescence imaging and NIR photothermal therapy was successfully realized for both in vitro cancer cells and in vivo tumor tissues. It was revealed that Cy5-Sgc8c-coated Cu-Au alloy nanostructures were not only capable of robust target recognition and stable signal output for molecular imaging in complex biological systems, but also killed target cancer cells in mice with only five minutes of 980 nm irradiation. The platform was found to be simple, stable, biocompatible and highly effective, and shows great potential as a versatile tool for cancer theranostics.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Institute of Biology, Hunan University, Key Laboratory for Bio-Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering of Hunan Province, Changsha 410082, China. kmwang@hnu.edu.cn xiaoxiaohe@hnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaosheng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Institute of Biology, Hunan University, Key Laboratory for Bio-Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering of Hunan Province, Changsha 410082, China. kmwang@hnu.edu.cn xiaoxiaohe@hnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Institute of Biology, Hunan University, Key Laboratory for Bio-Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering of Hunan Province, Changsha 410082, China. kmwang@hnu.edu.cn xiaoxiaohe@hnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaoxiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Institute of Biology, Hunan University, Key Laboratory for Bio-Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering of Hunan Province, Changsha 410082, China. kmwang@hnu.edu.cn xiaoxiaohe@hnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yanru
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Institute of Biology, Hunan University, Key Laboratory for Bio-Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering of Hunan Province, Changsha 410082, China. kmwang@hnu.edu.cn xiaoxiaohe@hnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Dinggeng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Institute of Biology, Hunan University, Key Laboratory for Bio-Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering of Hunan Province, Changsha 410082, China. kmwang@hnu.edu.cn xiaoxiaohe@hnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jinlu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Institute of Biology, Hunan University, Key Laboratory for Bio-Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering of Hunan Province, Changsha 410082, China. kmwang@hnu.edu.cn xiaoxiaohe@hnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yanli
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Institute of Biology, Hunan University, Key Laboratory for Bio-Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering of Hunan Province, Changsha 410082, China. kmwang@hnu.edu.cn xiaoxiaohe@hnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Kemin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000497:Alloys / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D020099:Coated Materials, Biocompatible / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000188:drug therapy*; D000068936:Theranostic Nanomedicine / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000497:Alloys; D020099:Coated Materials, Biocompatible; D006046:Gold; D003300:Copper