Environmentally Friendly Synthesis of Au-Te-Clustered Nanoworms via Galvanic Replacement for Wavelength-Selective Combination Cancer Therapy (vol 12, pg 5511, 2020)

Au-Te clustered nanoworms (AuTeNWs) were successfully synthesized under ambient conditions by spontaneous galvanic replacement using Te nanorods (TeNRs) as a sacrificial nanotemplate. Along with the gradual replacement and on-surface crystalline Au cluster formation, Te nanotemplates were transformed into a serpentine nanoworm-like morphology. The present strategy was an environmental-friendly method that did not use surfactants to control the surface structure. The synthesized nanoworms exhibited excellent photothermal conversion and photocatalytic efficiencies and high payloads for thiolated genes and cell-penetrating peptides. According to the visible and near-infrared wavelengths of light, the photodynamic and photothermal therapeutic pathways were dominantly acting respectively. From this, wavelength-selective combination treatment with gene-therapy was successfully accomplished. Taken together, excellent therapeutic effects for in vitro and in vivo mouse model against hepatitis C replicon human hepatocarcinoma were clearly identified by using present Au-Te clustered nanoworms as a phototherapeutic nanocarrier.