Plasmon resonant gold-coated liposomes for spectrally coded content release.

We have recently introduced liposome-supported plasmon resonant gold nanoshells (Troutman et al., Adv. Mater. 2008, 20, 2604-2608). These plasmon resonant gold-coated liposomes are degradable into components of a size compatible with renal clearance, potentially enabling their use as multifunctional agents in applications in nanomedicine, including imaging, diagnostics, therapy, and drug delivery. The present research demonstrates that laser illumination at the wavelength matching the plasmon resonance band of a gold-coated liposome leads to the rapid release of encapsulated substances, which can include therapeutic and diagnostic agents. Leakage of encapsulated contents is monitored through the release of self-quenched fluorescein, which provides an increase in fluorescence emission upon release. Moreover, the resonant peak of these gold-coated liposomes is spectrally tunable in the near infrared range by varying the concentration of gold deposited on the surface of liposomes. Varying the plasmon resonant wavelengths of gold-coated liposomes can provide a method for spectrally-coding their light-mediated content release, so that the release event is initiated by the specific wavelength of light used to illuminate the liposomes. The development of spectrally-coded release can find applications in controlled delivery of multiple agents to support complex diagnostic tests and therapeutic interventions.