Fabrication of a Novel Au Star@AgAu Yolk-Shell Nanostructure for Ovarian Cancer Early Diagnosis and Targeted Therapy

Abstract

Purpose

A novel CYPA-targeted, SiO₂ encapsulated Au star@AgAu yolk-shell nanostructure (YSNS) was synthesized and used for ovarian cancer early diagnosis and therapy.

Methods

Diverse spectroscopic and microscopic methods were utilized to investigate the pattern of the yolk-shell nanostructure. In addition, in vitro and in vivo experiments were carried out.

Results

It can be found that the ratio of HAuCl₄ and AgNO₃ played a critical role in the constitution of the yolk-shell nanostructure. The as-prepared yolk-shell nanostructure showed excellent SERS performance, which could be utilized as SERS substrate for specific sensitivity analysis of ovarian cancer markers cyclophilin A (CYPA) with detectable limit of 7.76*10⁻¹⁰ μg/mL. In addition, the as-prepared yolk-shell nanostructure possessed outstanding photothermal performance, which could be used as photothermal agent for ovarian cancer therapy. Experiments in vitro and in vivo proved that the as-prepared yolk-shell nanostructures are ideal candidate for early diagnosis and therapy for ovarian cancer in one platform.

Conclusion

This work holds promise to offer a new method for the detection and therapy of ovarian cancer in the early stage.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• yolk-shell nanostructure
• surface-enhanced Raman scattering
• early diagnosis
• cancer targeted therapy

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Postdoctoral Research Funding Program of Jiangsu Province of China (1701133C), Science and Technology Innovation Project of Xuzhou City (KC22120) and Jiangsu Training Program of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Undergraduates (202210313040Z).

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.