Plasmonic gold nanoparticles: Optical manipulation, imaging, drug delivery and therapy

Majid Sharifi, Farnoosh Attar, Ali Akbar Saboury, Keivan Akhtari, Nasrin Hooshmand, Anwarul Hasan, Mostafa A.El-Sayed, Mojtaba Falahati

Over the past two decades, the development of plasmonic nanoparticle (NPs), especially gold (Au) NPs, is being pursued more seriously in the medical fields such as imaging, drug delivery, and theranostic systems. However, there is no comprehensive review on the effect of the physical and chemical parameters of AuNPs on their plasmonic properties as well as the use of these unique characteristic in medical activities such as imaging and therapeutics. Therefore, in this literature the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) modeling of AuNPs was accurately captured toward precision medicine. Indeed, we investigated the importance of plasmonic properties of AuNPs in optical manipulation, imaging, drug delivery, and photothermal therapy (PTT) of cancerous cells based on their physicochemical properties. Finally, some challenges regarding the commercialization of AuNPs in future medicine such as, cytotoxicity, lack of standards for medical applications, high cost, and time-consuming process were discussed.

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Nano-inside-micro: Disease-responsive microgels with encapsulated nanoparticles for intracellular drug delivery to the deep lung

Prinda Wanakule, Gary W. Liu, Asha T. Fleury, Krishnendu Roy

It is well appreciated that delivery of therapeutic agents through the pulmonary route could provide significant improvement in patient compliance and reduce systemic toxicity for a variety of diseases. Many inhalable drug formulations suffer from low respirable fractions, rapid clearance by alveolar macrophages, target non-specificity, and difficulty in combining aerodynamic properties with efficient cellular uptake. To overcome these challenges, we developed an enzyme-responsive, nanoparticle-in-microgel delivery system. This system is designed to provide optimal aerodynamic carrier size for deep lung delivery, improved residence time of carriers in the lungs by avoiding rapid clearance by macrophages, and reduction of side effects and toxicity by releasing encapsulated therapeutics in response to disease-specific stimuli. This unique carrier system is fabricated using a new Michael addition during (water-in-oil) emulsion (MADE) method, especially suitable for biologic drugs due to its gentle fabrication conditions. The resulting microgels have a highly porous internal structure and an optimal aerodynamic diameter for effective deep lung delivery. They also exhibit triggered release of various nanoparticles and biologics in the presence of physiological levels of enzyme. In addition, the nanoparticle-carrying microgels showed little uptake by macrophages, indicating potential for increased lung residence time and minimal clearance by alveolar macrophages. Collectively, this system introduces a rationally designed, disease-specific, multi-tiered delivery system for use as an improved, pulmonary carrier for biologic drugs.

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