Polydopamine Coated Gold Nano Blackbodies for Tumor-Selective Spatial Thermal Damage During Plasmonic Photothermal Cancer Therapy

Plasmonic photothermal therapy (PPTT), which involves nanoparticles and near-infrared radiation (NIR) to generate confined heat, is a potential technique for selective thermal damage of cancerous tissue. Herein, tumor-selective spatial damage characteristics during polydopamine (PDA) coated gold nano blackbodies (AuNBs) mediated PPTT is investigated through a tumor-tissue mimicking phantom. The spatial temperatures during PPTT were measured within the phantom mimicking the optical scattering of superficial invasive ductal carcinoma (injected with AuNBs) surrounded by a region without AuNBs. The phantom was irradiated using broadband NIR radiation (754-816 nm), and spatial temperatures were measured using thermocouples and an infrared thermal camera. The obtained results demonstrate that the tumor region’s temperature was elevated to >50°C in about 2.5 minutes and was maintained thereafter for about 6 minutes, which is well sufficient for the thermal ablation of the tumor. While for the region surrounding the tumor, a temperature of about 40-44°C was attained, which is within safe limits for the said exposure duration. Overall, this study demonstrates that for the considered experimental parameters and tumor dimensions, heat-based thermal damage could be confined to the nanoparticle embedded tumor region while maintaining the safe temperature levels for the surrounding region, i.e., 2 mm beyond the tumor boundary.