Thermo-optical analysis and selection of the properties of absorbing nanoparticles for laser applications in cancer nanotechnology

Abstract

Applications of nanoparticles (NPs) as photo- thermal (PT) and photoacoustic (PA) labels and agents for diagnosis and therapy of cancer and other diseases in laser medicine are fast growing areas of research. Many potential benefits include possibility for imaging with higher resolution and treatment of deeper tissues containing NPs, killing of individual abnormal cells, etc. Nevertheless, despite successful results, there is a lack of focused analysis of requirements to NPs for optimization of PT/PA applications, especially with pulsed lasers. Here, we present a platform for analysis of NP properties (e.g., optical, thermal, acoustic, structural, and geometric), allowing to select their parameters in the presence of different ambient tissues. The several types of NPs are described, which provide significant increased conversion of laser pulse energy in PT/PA phenomena. These NPs make it possible to use them with maximal efficiency for detection and killing single malignant cells labeled with minimal amount of NPs and in laser nanomedicine. © Springer-Verlag 2010.