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Updated: Oct 12, 2025
Preparation and Photoacoustic Analysis of Cellular Vehicles Containing Gold Nanorods
Published on: May 2, 2016
Synthesis of NIR-II Absorbing Gelatin Stabilized Gold Nanorods and Its Photothermal Therapy Application against
Adewale Oladipo1,2, Thabang Calvin Lebepe1,2, Sundararajan Parani1,2
1Department of Chemical Sciences, Doornfontein Campus, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2028, South Africa.
Abstract:
The excellent photothermal properties of gold nanorods (Au-NRs) make them one of the most researched plasmonic photothermal nanomaterials. However, their biological applications have been hampered greatly due to surfactant-induced cytotoxicity. We herein report a simple synthesis of highly biocompatible gelatin stabilized Au-NRs (gelatin@Au-NRs) to address this issue. The optical and structural properties of the as-synthesized gelatin@Au-NRs were investigated by Zetasizer, Ultraviolet-Visible-Near Infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The as-synthesized gelatin@Au-NRs were highly crystalline and rod-like in shape with an average length and diameter of 66.2 ± 2.3 nm and 10 ± 1.6 nm, respectively. The as-synthesized gelatin@Au-NRs showed high stability in common biological media (phosphate buffer saline and Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium) compared to CTAB capped Au-NRs. Similarly, the gelatin@Au-NRs showed an improved heat production and outstanding cell viability against two different cancer cell lines; KM-Luc/GFP (mouse fibroblast histiocytoma cell line) and FM3A-Luc (breast carcinoma cell line) compared to CTAB capped Au-NRs and PEG@Au-NRs. An in vitro photothermal therapy study against KM-Luc/GFP showed that gelatin@Au-NRs effectively destroys the cancer cells.
