Magnetoplasmonic nanoplatforms for enhanced bioimaging and photothermal cancer therapy

In this presentation we introduce a novel magnetoplasmonic nanoplatform for biomedical applications. The nanoplatform consists of a gold nanorod (GNR) and multiple Fe 3O 4 nanoparticles enclosed in a polymeric micelle-like structure. The combined magnetic and plasmonic functionality of the nanoplatform enables field-directed targeting, enhanced multimodal imaging, and therapy of diseased tissue. We demonstrate magnetophoretic control of the nanoformulations in vitro wherein an external field is used to accelerate uptake and aggregate the nanoplatforms in cancer cells. Following uptake, the nanoplatforms are illuminated with the femtosecond-pulsed IR laser, which causes photothermal destruction of the cells due to plasmonically-enhanced heating and bubble generation. We show that field-induced aggregation dramatically enhances the ability to selectively destroy targeted cells compared to the same therapy in the absence of a field. We also demonstrate that magnetically aggregated nanoplatforms produce enhanced photoacoustic tomography (PAT).