Reversibly pH-responsive gold nanoparticles and their applications for photothermal cancer therapy.

ABSTRACT: Microenvironment responsive nanomaterials are attractive for therapeutic applications with regional specificity. Here we report pH responsive gold nanoparticles which are designed to aggregate in acidic condition similar to cancer environment and returned to its original disassembled states in a physiological pH. The pH responsive behavior of the particles is derived by change of electrostatic interaction among the particles where attraction and repulsion play a major role in low and high pH of the environment, respectively. Since different electrostatic interaction behavior of the particles in varied pH is induced not by irreversible chemical change but by simple protonation differences, the pH responsive process of assembly and disassembly is totally reversible. The low pH specific aggre

SUBMITTER: Park S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6934723 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature