Tungsten oxide nanorods: an efficient nanoplatform for tumor CT imaging and photothermal therapy
Zhiguo Zhou1, Bin Kong1, Chao Yu1
1The Education Ministry Key Lab of Resource Chemistry and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Functional Materials, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
We report here a facile thermal decomposition approach to creating tungsten oxide nanorods (WO2.9 NRs) with a length of 13.1 ± 3.6 nm and a diameter of 4.4 ± 1.5 nm for tumor theranostic applications. The formed WO2.9 NRs were modified with methoxypoly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) carboxyl acid via ligand exchange to have good water dispersability and biocompatibility. With the high photothermal conversion efficiency irradiated by a 980 nm laser and the better X-ray attenuation property than clinically used computed tomography (CT) contrast agent Iohexol, the formed PEGylated WO2.9 NRs are able to inhibit the growth of the model cancer cells in vitro and the corresponding tumor model in vivo, and enable effective CT imaging of the tumor model in vivo. Our "killing two birds with one stone" strategy could be extended for fabricating other nanoplatforms for efficient tumor theranostic applications.
