NIR II Light-Response Au Nanoframes: Amplification of a Pressure- and Temperature-Sensing Strategy for Portable Detection and Photothermal Therapy of Cancer Cells

Anal Chem. 2021 Oct 26;93(42):14307-14316. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c03486. Epub 2021 Oct 12.

Abstract

Quantitative detection of cancer cells using portable devices is promising for the development of simple, fast, and point-of-care cancer diagnostic techniques. However, how to further amplify the detection signal to improve the sensitivity and accuracy of detecting cancer cells by portable devices remains a challenge. To solve the problem, we, for the first time, synthesized folic-acid-conjugated Au nanoframes (FA-Au NFs) with amplification of pressure and temperature signals for highly sensitive and accurate detection of cancer cells by portable pressure meters and thermometers. The resulting Au NFs exhibit excellent near-infrared (NIR) photothermal performance and catalase activity, which can promote the decomposition of NH4HCO3 and H2O2 to generate corresponding gases (CO2, NH3, and O2), thereby synergistically amplifying pressure signals in a closed reaction vessel. At the same time, Au NFs with excellent peroxidase-like activity can catalyze the oxidation of 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) to produce TMB oxide (oxTMB) with a strong photothermal effect, thereby cooperating with Au NFs to amplify the photothermal signal. In the presence of cancer cells with overexpressing folate receptors (FRs), the molecular recognition signals between FA and FR can be converted into amplified pressure and temperature signals, which can be easily read by portable pressure meters and thermometers, respectively. The detection limits for cancer cells using pressure meters and thermometers are 6 and 5 cells/mL, respectively, which are better than other reported methods. Moreover, such Au NFs can improve tumor hypoxia by catalyzing the decomposition of H2O2 to produce O2 and perform photothermal therapy of cancer. Together, our work provides new insight into the application of Au NFs to develop a dual-signal sensing platform with amplification of pressure and temperature signals for portable and ultrasensitive detection of cancer cells as well as personalized cancer therapy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Catalysis
  • Gold*
  • Hydrogen Peroxide
  • Neoplasms* / therapy
  • Photothermal Therapy
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Gold
  • Hydrogen Peroxide