Recently, the development of nano-
theranostic agents aiming at imaging guided
therapy has received great attention. In this work, a near-infrared (NIR) heptamethine indocyanine
dye, IR825, in the presence of cationic
polymer,
polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAH), forms J-aggregates with red-shifted and significantly enhanced absorbance. After further complexing with ultra-small iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) and the followed functionalization with
polyethylene glycol (PEG), the obtained IR825@PAH-IONP-PEG composite nanoparticles are highly stable in different physiological media. With a sharp absorbance peak, IR825@PAH-IONP-PEG can serve as an effective photothermal agent under
laser irradiation at 915 nm, which appears to be optimal in
photothermal therapy application considering its improved tissue penetration compared with 808-nm light and much lower water heating in comparison to 980-nm light. As revealed by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, those nanoparticles after
intravenous injection exhibit high
tumor accumulation, which is then harnessed for in vivo photothermal ablation of
tumors, achieving excellent therapeutic efficacy in a mouse
tumor model. This study demonstrates for the first time that J-aggregates of organic
dye molecules are an interesting class of photothermal material, which when combined with other imageable nanoprobes could serve as a
theranostic agent for imaging-guided
photothermal therapy of
cancer.