Preparation of colloidal polydopamine/Au hollow spheres for enhanced ultrasound contrast imaging and photothermal therapy

Publication date: January 2020Source: Materials Science and Engineering: C, Volume 106Author(s): Bin Shang, Xiaofen Zhang, Ri Ji, Yanbing Wang, He Hu, Bo Peng, Ziwei DengAbstractDevelopment of functional theranostic platform for systemic contrast-enhanced diagnostic imaging and therapy is of great necessity in nanomedicine. However, synthesizing the biocompatible theranostic agents with enhanced merits in imaging and therapy via a facile and green way is still highly challenged. Here, we report a novel theranostic agent based on colloidal polydopamine/Au (PDA/Au) hollow spheres, which are synthesized with combined use of PDA chemistry and sacrificial template techniques. Colloidal polystyrene (PS) spheres serve as the templates with coatings of a PDA shell and Au nanoparticles in sequence, which are subsequently removed with trichloromethane, giving rise to colloidal PDA/Au hollow spheres. Colloidal PDA/Au hollow spheres exhibit excellent contrast enhancement for ultrasound imaging, and can serve as the near-infrared (NIR) photoabsorbers for the effective photothermal ablation of 4 T1 breast cancer cells in vitro with minor cytotoxicity to living cells. This method suggests a novel avenue for theranostic treatment in oncology.Graphical abstractColloidal polydopamine/Au (PDA/Au) hollow spheres fabricated via polydopamine chemistry combing with sacrificial template method, can serve as theranostic agents for in vitro ultrasound imaging and photothermal therapy.
Source: Materials Science and Engineering: C - Category: Materials Science Source Type: research