Flower-like PEGylated MoS2 nanoflakes for near-infrared photothermal cancer therapy

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 5; no. 1; p. 17422
• Main Authors: Feng, Wei, Chen, Liang, Qin, Ming, Zhou, Xiaojun, Zhang, Qianqian, Miao, Yingke, Qiu, Kexin, Zhang, Yanzhong, He, Chuanglong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 03.12.2015; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 14/19; 14/34; 14/63; 140/146; 631/67/1059; 639/638/298; Animals; Cancer; Cancer therapies; Cell Adhesion - drug effects; Cell Adhesion - radiation effects; Cell Line, Tumor; Cytoskeleton - drug effects; Cytoskeleton - radiation effects; Cytotoxicity; Disulfides - chemistry; Disulfides - toxicity; Female; Flowers; Hemolysis - drug effects; High temperature; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Hyperthermia, Induced - methods; I.R. radiation; Irradiation; Lasers; Lipoic acid; Lysosomes - drug effects; Lysosomes - radiation effects; Materials Testing; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Molybdenum; Molybdenum - chemistry; Molybdenum - toxicity; Molybdenum disulfide; multidisciplinary; Nanostructures - chemistry; Nanotechnology - methods; Phototherapy - methods; Polyethylene glycol; Polyethylene Glycols; Science; Temperature effects; Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep17422

Photothermal cancer therapy has attracted considerable interest for cancer treatment in recent years, but the effective photothermal agents remain to be explored before this strategy can be applied clinically. In this study, we therefore develop flower-like molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) nanoflakes and investigate their potential for photothermal ablation of cancer cells. MoS 2 nanoflakes are synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method and then modified with lipoic acid-terminated polyethylene glycol (LA-PEG), endowing the obtained nanoflakes with high colloidal stability and very low cytotoxicity. Upon irradiation with near infrared (NIR) laser at 808 nm, the nanoflakes showed powerful ability of inducing higher temperature, good photothermal stability and high photothermal conversion efficiency. The in vitro photothermal effects of MoS 2 -PEG nanoflakes with different concentrations were also evaluated under various power densities of NIR 808-nm laser irradiation and the results indicated that an effective photothermal killing of cancer cells could be achieved by a low concentration of nanoflakes under a low power NIR 808-nm laser irradiation. Furthermore, cancer cell in vivo could be efficiently destroyed via the photothermal effect of MoS 2 -PEG nanoflakes under the irradiation. These results thus suggest that the MoS 2 -PEG nanoflakes would be as promising photothermal agents for future photothermal cancer therapy.