A feasible strategy for self-assembly of gold nanoparticles via dithiol-PEG for photothermal therapy of cancers

Yingjie Fu; Qishuai Feng; Yajing Shen; Mengwei Chen; Chang Xu; Yu Cheng; Xiang Zhou

doi:10.1039/c7ra12735a

A feasible strategy for self-assembly of gold nanoparticles via dithiol-PEG for photothermal therapy of cancers

RSC Adv. 2018 Feb 7;8(11):6120-6124. doi: 10.1039/c7ra12735a. eCollection 2018 Feb 2.

Authors

Yingjie Fu^{1

2}, Qishuai Feng³, Yajing Shen³, Mengwei Chen³, Chang Xu³, Yu Cheng³, Xiang Zhou^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ The Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University Wuhan 430072 China xzhou@whu.edu.cn.
² College of Chemistry and Molecular Science, Wuhan University Wuhan 430072 China.
³ Shanghai East Hospital, The Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Nano Science, Tongji University School of Medicine Shanghai 200029 China yucheng@tongji.edu.cn.

Abstract

We designed and explored self-assembled gold nanoparticles (SAGNPs) by introducing dithiol modified polyethylene glycol (PEG) for internanoparticle cross-linking. SAGNPs could enhance uptake into cancer cells and be disintegrated by glutathione (GSH) to achieve tumor microenvironment-activated biodegradation. This assembled structure improved the photothermal effect compared to single gold nanospheres.