Evaluating Cellular Uptake of Gold Nanoparticles in HL-7702 and HepG2 Cells for Plasmonic Photothermal Therapy

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Aim: A novel methodology is provided to quantitatively measure the gold (Au) mass internalized in a cell for effective implementation of plasmonic photothermal therapy (PPTT). Materials & methods: The cellular uptake of 4-mercaptobenzoic acid-labeled Au nanoparticles (NPs) is investigated via Raman mapping and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and the efficiency of in vitro PPTT is evaluated. Results & conclusion: The cellular uptake is strongly affected by the size of the Au NPs, concentration of the Au NPs, incubation time and cell type. By optimizing the experimental parameters, the results show that a significant damage is caused to the HepG2 cells and slight harm is caused to the HL-7702 cells during PPTT. This demonstrates a high potential for developing effective photothermal therapy for tumor tissues. A novel method is proposed for quantifying the Raman intensity as a function of gold mass in a single cell based on the Raman mapping and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry techniques. A high-efficiency plasmonic photothermal therapy has also been achieved by adjusting the laser wavelength, laser power and exposure time, resulting in most of the HL-7702 cells surviving, whereas most of the HepG2 cells get damaged.