Stimuli-disassembling gold nanoclusters for diagnosis of early stage oral cancer by optical coherence tomography

摘要: A key design consideration in developing contrast agents is obtaining distinct, multiple signal changes diseased tissue. Plasmonic gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) have been developed as due to their strong surface plasmon resonance (SPR). This study aims demonstrate that stimuli-responsive plasmonic Au nanoclusters NCs) can be used a agent for optical coherence tomography (OCT) detecting early-stage cancer. NPs were clustered via acid-cleavable linkers synthesize NCs disassemble under mildly acidic conditions into individual NPs, simultaneously diminishing SPR effect (quantified by scattering intensity) and increasing Brownian motion Doppler variance). The acid-triggered morphological accompanying optico-physical property of the acid-disassembling confirmed TEM, DLS, UV/Vis, OCT. Stimuli-responsive applied hamster check pouch model carrying squamous carcinoma tissue was visualized OCT imaging, which showed reduced intensity increased variance dysplastic demonstrates promise diagnosing cancer using molecularly programmable, inorganic nanomaterial-based are capable generating multiple, stimuli-triggered diagnostic signals