Synthesis of gold nanorods and their performance in the field of cancer cell imaging and photothermal therapy

• Main Authors: Naseer Ullah Khan, Jing Lin, Muhammad Rizwan Younas, Xukun Liu, Liming Shen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2021-07-01
• Series: Cancer Nanotechnology
• Subjects: Bioimaging; Cancer cells; Gold nanorods; Plasmon band; Photothermal therapy
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12645-021-00092-w

Abstract Cancer is one of the most common incident in the world, with malignant tumors having a death rate of up to 19%. A new method of treating cancer cells effectively with minimal cytotoxicity is needed. In the field of biomedicine with unique shape-dependent optical properties, gold nanorods (GNRs) have attracted worldwide interest. These nanorods have two distinct plasmon bands. One is transverse plasmon band in the area of visible light, and the other is longitudinal band of plasmons in near infrared region. These specific characters provide promise for the design of new optically active reagents that simultaneously perform light-mediated imaging and photothermal cancer treatment. We begin our review by summarizing the latest developments in gold nanorods synthesis with a focus on seed-mediated growth method. Nanorods spontaneous self-assembly, polymer-based alignment and its applications as a novel agent for simultaneous bioimaging and photothermal cancer therapy are listed in particular.