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Updated: Sep 17, 2025
One Minute, Sub-One-Watt Photothermal Tumor Ablation Using Porphysomes, Intrinsic Multifunctional Nanovesicles
Published on: September 17, 2013
Clustered, SERS-Active, Ultrasmall AuNPs for Photothermal Therapy
Ryan D Mellor1, Guojun Xiong1, Alexandra G Vaideanu1
1School of Pharmacy, University College London (UCL), London, WC1N 1AX, UK.
Introduction:
Gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) have emerged as promising agents for photothermal cancer therapy due to their unique optical properties and potential for tumour targeting.
Methods:
In this study, we developed clustered, excretable AuNCs using a glycol chitosan derivative (GCPQ) and investigated their physicochemical properties, photothermal effect, and therapeutic efficacy.
Results:
The AuNCs exhibited tunable surface plasmon resonance peaks dependent on the polymer:AuNP ratio, with optimized clusters showing surface enhanced Raman scattering and photothermal heating. In vivo studies in a mouse tumour model demonstrated significant tumour growth inhibition (334% growth vs 607% growth for untreated animals after 6 days) when combining intratumoural AuNC injection with near-infrared laser irradiation.
Conclusion:
The results provide proof-of-concept for the potential of these AuNCs in photothermal cancer therapy. Future work should focus on improving tumour targeting, optimizing treatment parameters, and assessing long-term safety to advance this platform toward clinical translation.
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