Cancer-targeted photothermal therapy using aptamer-conjugated gold nanoparticles

Targeted intracellular delivery of therapeutic agents is one of the great challenges for cancer treatment. Aptamers that bind to a variety of biological targets have emerged as new targeting moieties with high specificity for targeted cancer therapy. In this study, near-infrared (NIR) light-absorbing hollow gold nanocages (AuNCs) were synthesized and conjugated with AS1411 aptamer to achieve cancer-targeted photothermal therapy. AuNC functionalized with PEG and AS1411 (AS1411-PEG-AuNC) exhibited selective cellular uptake in breast cancer cells due to selective binding of AS1411 to nucleolin, a protein that is over-expressed in cancer cells over normal cells. As a result, AS1411-PEG-AuNC showed cancer targeted photothermal activity. This study demonstrates that aptamer-conjugated AuNCs are effective tumor-targeting photothermal agents. (C) 2018 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.