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Dendrimer‐Stabilized Gold Nanostars as a Multifunctional Theranostic Nanoplatform for CT Imaging, Photothermal Therapy, and Gene Silencing of Tumors
Author(s) -
Wei Ping,
Chen Jingwen,
Hu Yong,
Li Xin,
Wang Han,
Shen Mingwu,
Shi Xiangyang
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
advanced healthcare materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.288
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 2192-2659
pISSN - 2192-2640
DOI - 10.1002/adhm.201600923
Subject(s) - photothermal therapy , dendrimer , gene silencing , nanotechnology , materials science , cancer research , medicine , chemistry , gene , polymer chemistry , biochemistry
Development of versatile nanomaterials combining diagnostic and therapeutic functionalities within one single nanoplatform is extremely important for tumor theranostics. In this work, the authors report the synthesis of a gold nanostar (Au NS)‐based theranostic platform stabilized with cyclic arginine‐glycine‐aspartic (Arg‐Gly‐Asp, RGD) peptide‐modified amine‐terminated generation 3 poly(amidoamine) dendrimers. The formed RGD‐modified dendrimer‐stabilized Au NSs (RGD‐Au DSNSs) are used as a gene delivery vector to complex small interfering RNA (siRNA) for computed tomography (CT) imaging, thermal imaging, photothermal therapy (PTT), and gene therapy of tumors. The results show that the RGD‐Au DSNSs are able to compact vascular endothelial growth factor siRNA and specifically deliver siRNA to cancer cells overexpressing α v β 3 integrin. Under near‐infrared laser irradiation, the viability of cancer cells is only 20.2% after incubation with the RGD‐Au DSNS/siRNA polyplexes, which is much lower than that of cells after single PTT or gene therapy treatment. Furthermore, in vivo results show that the RGD‐Au DSNS/siRNA polyplexes enable tumor CT imaging, thermal imaging, PTT, and gene therapy after intratumoral injection. These results indicate that the developed multifunctional nanoconstruct is a promising platform for tumor imaging and combinational PTT and gene therapy.