title: Targeted Aucore-Agshell nanorods as a dual-functional contrast agent for photoacoustic imaging and photothermal therapy.
abstract: Optimizing contrast enhancement is essential for producing specific signals in biomedical imaging and therapy. The potential of using Aucore-Agshell nanorods (Au@Ag NRs) as a dual-functional theranostic contrast agent is demonstrated for effective cancer imaging and treatments. Due to its strong NIR absorption and high efficiency of photothermal conversion, effects of both photoacoustic tomography (PAT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) are enhanced significantly. The PAT signal grows by 45.3% and 82% in the phantom and in vivo experiments, respectively, when compared to those using Au NRs. In PTT, The maximum increase of tissue temperature treated with Au@Ag NRs is 22.8 °C, twice that with Au NRs. Results of the current study show the feasibility of using Au@Ag NRs for synergetic PAT with PTT. And it will enhance the potential application on real-time PAT guided PTT, which will greatly benefit the customized PTT treatment of cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China; These authors contributed equally to this work.
authors.forename: Yiwen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, 710071, China; Key laboratory of Molecular Imaging, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China; These authors contributed equally to this work.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Molecular Imaging, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
authors.forename: Xinyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chai
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
authors.forename: Qiushi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, 710071, China; Key laboratory of Molecular Imaging, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
authors.forename: Chuanqing
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou
keywords: (100.2980) Image enhancement; (160.4236) Nanomaterials; (170.3880) Medical and biological imaging; (170.5120) Photoacoustic imaging; (190.4870) Photothermal effects