Gold Nanorods Modified with Chitosan As Photothermal Agents

Gold nanorods (GNRs) are one of the nanomaterials, which could absorb near-infrared (NIR) light and convert to heat for the application on photothermal therapy. According to literature, Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) is one of the widely used surfactant for the synthesis of GRNs. However, due to cell toxicity of CTAB, it is necessary to modify the surface of gold nanorods for cell-related studies. In this study, thiolated chitosan was employed to replace CTAB on gold nanorods due to its biocompatibility. The absorption spectra ranged from visible to NIR wavelength were tuned by changing the aspect ratio of chitosan-tagged GNRs. We further conjugated chitosan/GNRs with disiloganglioside (GD2) monoclonal antibody which can lead to the functionalized nanomaterials endocytosed into stNB-V1 neuroblastoma cells. After exposure with NIR laser at 808 nm, photothermal destruction of stNB-V1 cells was clearly demonstrated by calcein AM staining.