Photothermal treatment of glioblastoma cells based on plasmonic nanoparticles

AbstractPhotothermal therapy based on plasmonic gold nanoparticles is considered a promising approach for cancer treatment. Here, we investigate the in vitro photothermal effect of 30-nm gold nanoparticles, optically excited with a 532-nm continuous laser, on the U87MG malignant glioblastoma cells, and demonstrate the role of nanoparticle concentration and exposure power density in achieving its optimum performance. Laser-induced collective oscillation of electrons in plasmonic gold nanoparticles is employed to generate localized heat to denature tumor cells. Optical spectroscopy is used to measure the plasmonic band of nanoparticles and select the excitation laser light. The MTT assay for the IC50 viability assessment is performed to evaluate the live and metabolically active cells after treatment with plasmonic nanoparticles. The quantitative data is statistically analyzed using analysis of variance followed by Tukey ’s post hoc test. The viability test demonstrates that the metabolic activity of treated U87MG was decreased compared with untreated cells, leading to the determination of the IC50 as 92\(\frac{\upmu \textrm{g}}{\textrm{mL}}\). A 532-nm laser light was selected for the excitation of gold nanoparticles since the maximum plasmonic band is at 524 nm. The viability tests show that although cells have natural photothermal agents, their absorption efficiency is very low; therefore, the laser-induced plasmonic effect is necessary to observe photothermal effects. The...
Source: Lasers in Medical Science - Category: Laser Surgery Source Type: research