Multifunctional perfluorocarbon nanoemulsions for cancer therapy and imaging

There is currently interest in the development of nanoemulsions as imaging and therapeutic agents, particularly perfluorohexane (PFH) droplets, whose amphiphilic shell protects drugs against physico-chemical and enzymatic degradation. When delivered to their target sites, these perfluorocarbon (PFC) droplets can vaporize upon laser excitation, efficiently releasing their drug payload and/or imaging tracers. Due to the optical properties of gold, coupling PFC droplets with gold nanoparticles significantly reduces the energy required for vaporization. In this work, nanoemulsions with a PFC core and Zonyl FSP surfactant shell were produced using sonication. Droplets were characterized in terms of size and morphology using high resolution fluorescence microscopy (i.e. total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, TIRFM), fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and light scattering techniques (i.e. dynamic light scattering, DLS). The ability of PFC droplets to vaporize was demonstrated using optical light microscopy.