Biocompatible Two-Dimensional Titanium Nanosheets for Multimodal Imaging-Guided Cancer Theranostics

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 11; no. 25; pp. 22129 - 22140
• Main Authors: Xie, Zhongjian, Chen, Shiyou, Duo, Yanhong, Zhu, Yao, Fan, Taojian, Zou, Qingshuang, Qu, Mengmeng, Lin, Zhitao, Zhao, Jinlai, Li, Yang, Liu, Liping, Bao, Shiyun, Chen, Hong, Fan, Dianyuan, Zhang, Han
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 26.06.2019
• Subjects: Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Survival - drug effects; Combined Modality Therapy; Humans; Multimodal Imaging - methods; Nanocomposites - adverse effects; Nanocomposites - chemistry; Nanostructures - adverse effects; Nanostructures - chemistry; Photoacoustic Techniques - methods; Surface Plasmon Resonance; Theranostic Nanomedicine - methods; Titanium - chemistry; titanium nanosheet; theranostic agent; photoacoustic imaging; liquid-phase exfoliation; photothermal therapy
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b04628

Photothermal therapy (PTT) based on two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials has shown significant potential in cancer treatment. However, developing 2D nanomaterial-based theranostic agents with good biocompatibility and high therapeutic efficiency remains a key challenge. Bulk titanium (Ti) has been widely used as biomedical materials for their reputable biocompatibility, whereas nanosized Ti with a biological function remains unexplored. In this work, the 2D Ti nanosheets (NSs) are successfully exfoliated from nonlayer bulk Ti and utilized as an efficient theranostic nanoplatform for dual-modal computed tomography/photoacoustic (CT/PA) imaging-navigated PTT. Besides the excellent biocompatibility obtained by TiNSs as expected, they are found to show strong absorption ability with an extinction coefficient of 20.8 L g–1 cm–1 and high photothermal conversion ability with an efficiency of 61.5% owing to localized surface plasmon resonances, which exceeds most of other well-known photothermal agents, making it quite promising for PTT against cancer. Furthermore, the metallic property and light-heat-acoustic transformation endow 2D Ti with the strong CT/PA imaging signal and efficient cancer therapy, simultaneously. This work highlights the enormous potential of nanosized Ti in both the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. As a paradigm, this study also paves a new avenue for the elemental transition-metal-based cancer theranostics.