Gold Nanoparticles for Photoacoustic Imaging

Abstract

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is a biomedical imaging modality that provides functional information regarding the cellular and molecular signatures of tissue by using endogenous and exogenous contrast agents. There has been tremendous effort devoted to the development of PA imaging agents, and gold nanoparticles as exogenous contrast agents have great potential for PA imaging due to their inherent and geometrically induced optical properties. The gold-based nanoparticles that are most commonly employed for PA imaging include spheres, rods, shells, prisms, cages, stars and vesicles. This article provides an overview of the current state of research in utilizing these gold nanomaterials for PA imaging of cancer, atherosclerotic plaques, brain function and image-guided therapy.

Keywords::

• atherosclerosis
• brain function
• cancer
• gold nanoparticle
• photoacoustic imaging
• therapy guidance

Financial & competing interest disclosure

This work was supported in part by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 program, 2013CB733802, 2014CB744503), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project no. 50902093, 81371596 and 81371645) and the Intramural Research Program (IRP) of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), NIH. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 program, 2013CB733802, 2014CB744503), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project no. 50902093, 81371596 and 81371645) and the Intramural Research Program (IRP) of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), NIH. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.