Aspect ratios of gold nanoshell capsules mediated melanoma ablation by synergistic photothermal therapy and chemotherapy.

Nanomaterial-mediated photothermal therapy has shown great potential to fulfill the unmet medical needs for treatment of tumors. In this study, a rod-like gold nanoshell capsule, which can offer both photothermal therapy and chemotherapy, is synthesized and applied for the treatment of melanoma. This nano-platform is made by developing a gold nanoshell on rod-like mesoporous silica nanoparticles with different aspect ratios, and it was found that the aspect ratio significantly influenced the cellular uptake and tumor distribution of the nanoparticles. The gold nanoshell capsules with a moderate aspect ratio are found to be efficiently taken up by melanoma cells and are able to penetrate tumor tissues, resulting in the effective ablation of highly malignant melanomas when used along with mild laser irradiation and a single treatment. This study demonstrates that the optimization of the aspect ratio is indispensable to further development of this nanoplatform for antitumor therapy. FROM THE CLINICAL EDITOR: The combination of hyperthermia and chemotherapeutic agents has been investigated as a new approach for the treatment of malignant melanoma. It appears that the aspect ratio may play an important role in the treatment efficacy. In this article, the authors studied how the AR influenced the cellular uptake and the optimal AR for antitumor effects.