Silica coated gold nanorods for imaging and photo-thermal therapy of cancer cells

Abstract

Due to their efficient conversion of absorbed light energy to heat gold nanorods have been proved to be an amazing tool for minimally invasive photo-thermal cancer therapy. The present in vitro study demonstrates the ability of silica coated Au nanorods to function as a dual probe for cancer-cell therapy and imaging without any toxic side-effects. HeLa cells were incubated with silica coated Au nanorods and imaged inside the cell just after 1 hour of incubation by a dark field set up due to strong surface enhanced Raman scattering. To induce hyperthermia, silica coated Au nanorod incubated HeLa cells were illuminated with a diode laser (671 nm, 200 mW, 10 min). Cell destruction was observed even at a very low dose of nanorods, whereas none was observed in the absence of nanorods. Silica coated Au nanorods thus offer a promising, novel class of selective photo-thermal agents for cancer therapy and diagnosis.