Surface Plasmonic Enhanced Imaging-Guided Photothermal/Photodynamic Therapy Based on Lanthanide–Metal Nanocomposites under Single 808 nm Laser

In this research, we design the integration of Au/Ag nanocages with upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) as the theranostic agent under single 808 nm with enhanced imaging-guided photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) properties. Different with the conventional theranostic agent, Au/Ag@UCNPs can emit higher blue emission under 808 nm laser and generate higher reactive oxygen species than that of Au@UCNPs due to higher crossed absorbance between the nanocages and UCNPs. Furthermore, the temperature change of Au/Ag@UCNPs (9.7 °C) is much higher than that of phosphate-buffered saline solution (0.6 °C) under 808 nm laser, indicating there is a low side effect to normal cells when Au/Ag@UCNPs are utilized as the photoactive agent. Finally, the in vitro and in vivo experiments show that the tumor is almost ablated totally due to high synergistic PDT and PTT effects of Au/Ag@UCNPs, revealing it could be potentially applied in the clinical theranostic field.