Synthesis and In Vitro Performance of Polypyrrole-Coated Iron–Platinum Nanoparticles for Photothermal Therapy and Photoacoustic Imaging

Abstract

Multifunctional nano-platform for the combination of photo-based therapy and photoacoustic imaging (PAI) for cancer treatment has recently attracted much attention to nanotechnology development. In this study, we developed iron–platinum nanoparticles (FePt NPs) with the polypyrrole (PPy) coating as novel agents for combined photothermal therapy (PTT) and PAI. The obtained PPy-coated FePt NPs (FePt@PPy NPs) showed excellent biocompatibility, photothermal stability, and high near-infrared (NIR) absorbance for the combination of PTT and PAI. In vitro investigation experimentally demonstrated the effectiveness of FePt@PPy NPs in killing cancer cells with NIR laser irradiation. Moreover, the phantom test of PAI used in conjunction with FePt@PPy NPs showed a strong photoacoustic signal. Thus, the novel FePt@PPy NPs could be considered as promising multifunctional nanoparticles for further applications of photo-based diagnosis and treatment.