Self-Assembled Au/CuS Nanoparticles for Targeted Imaging and Multimodal Therapy of Breast Cancer

With the rapid development of nanotechnology, many multifunctionalbionanoplatforms have been developed for cancer treatment. Here, we have developed targeted multimodal nanoparticles for breast cancerimaging and treatment. Using a solvent-induced self-assembly technique,we prepared a nanomaterial (Au/CuS NPs) composed of gold nanoclusters(Au NCs) and copper sulfide nanoparticles (CuS NPs). The compositenanoparticles possess both the bioimaging ability of Au NCs and thephotothermal properties of CuS NPs. To target folate receptors overexpressingbreast cancer cells, we modified the nanoparticle surfaces with folicacid. Furthermore, we easily loaded doxorubicin into the nanoparticlesusing electrostatic interaction and hydrogen bonding, achieving adrug encapsulation efficiency of 47.8%. In vitro experimentsshowed that the prepared composite nanomaterials had excellent fluorescenceimaging ability and a better ability to kill MDA-MB-231 cells thansingle drug or photothermal treatment alone. This multifunctionalsystem, which combines fluorescence imaging, photothermal treatment,and targeted drug delivery, has great potential for cancer diagnosisand treatment.