Various gold nanoparticles have been explored in biomedical systems and proven to be promising in photothermal therapy and drug delivery. Among them, nanoshells were regarded as traditionally strong near infrared absorbers that have been widely used to generate photothermal effect for cancer therapy. However, the nanoshell is not photo-thermal stable and thus is not suitable for repeated irradiation. Here, we describe a novel discrete gold nanostructure by mimicking the continuous gold nanoshell-gold/mesoporous silica hybrid nanoparticle (GoMe). It possesses the best characteristics of both conventional gold nanoparticles and mesoporous silica nanoparticles, such as excellent photothermal converting ability as well as high drug loading capacity and triggerable drug release.
Keywords: Gold nanoparticle; Mesoporous silica nanoparticle; Photothermal therapy; Redox responsive.