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Updated: May 16, 2026
Inducing Targeted Mild Hyperthermia in Murine Tumor Models through Photothermal Conversion of Near-infrared Light by Intratumoral Gold Nanorods
Published on: October 10, 2025
Fluorescent nanothermometers provide controlled plasmonic-mediated intracellular hyperthermia
Laura Martínez Maestro1, Patricia Haro-González, M Carmen Iglesias-de la Cruz
1Fluorescence Imaging Group, Departamento de Física de Materiales, Facultad de Ciencias, Instituto Nicolás Cabrera, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
Aim:
This article demonstrates how controlled hyperthermia at the cellular level can be achieved.
Materials & Methods:
The method is based on the simultaneous intracellular incorporation of fluorescence nanothermometers (CdSe quantum dots) and metallic nanoheaters (gold nanorods).
Results:
Real-time spectral analysis of the quantum dot emission provides a detailed feedback about the intracellular thermal loading caused by gold nanorods excited at the plasmon frequency. Based on this approach, thermal dosimetry is assessed in such a way that the infrared laser (heating) power required to achieve catastrophic intracellular temperature increments in cancer cells is identified.
Conclusions:
This pure optical method emerges as a new and promising guide for the development of infrared hyperthermia therapies with minimal invasiveness.
