| 초록 |
EGFR is an attractive marker because its metastasis, angiogenesis, and blocking of apoptosis, which ultimately leads to multiple tumorgenic processes. In this study, an anti-epidermal growth factor receptor aptamer (Apt) is exploited as the targeting agent of a gold nanorod-based photothermal therapy system. The CTAB bilayer on GNRs was replaced with COOH-PEG-SH to serve as a biocompatible stabilizer and to increase specificity. The carboxylated GNRs (PGNRs) were further functionalized with EGFR aptamer (Apt) using 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide/N-hydroxysuccinimide (EDC-NHS) chemistry. To assess the potential of such Apt-PGNRs, we investigated their optical properties, biocompatibility, in vitro binding affinities for cancer cells, and in vitro/ in vivo photothermal therapy effects. The behavior of the novel aptamer-gold nanorod bioconjugates suggests that EGFR aptamers may have applicaiton potential in targeted photothermal therapy towards EGFR-overexpressing tumors. |
