作为生物探针,纳米微粒以其独特的光学性质,易控的表面化学能力,在基于生物成像和诊断的分子生物学和医学领域中引起越来越广泛的关注。贵金属,尤其是金纳米微粒,由于其表面等离子体共振(SPR)等强吸收和发光特性,在生物组织成像,癌症的诊断和治疗中存在着巨大的应用前景。结合配体的金纳米微粒能够特异性地标记癌症细胞上的受体,并提供特定分子的特有信息,进行生物成像和癌症检测。另外,金纳米微粒能够有效地吸收光能量进行局部加热,导致蛋白质变性,并致细胞死亡。主要回顾各种不同尺寸和形状的金纳米微粒的光学特性,以及选择性标记的金纳米微粒在生物成像,癌症诊断和光热疗法中的研究进展。

Nanoparticles have attracted widespread interest in molecular biology and medicine fields for diagnostic application and biological imaging, due to their unique optical properties and facile surface chemistry. Noble metals, especially gold nanoparticles (NPs), have great potential use in biological issue imaging, cancer diagnosis and therapy because of their surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and strong absorption induced luminescence. Au-ligand conjugates can specifically target the receptor on cancer cells, provide specific information about specific molecules, and allow molecular-specific imaging and cancer detection. Gold NPs can strongly absorb light, efficiently convert optical energy into localized heat, produce selective photothermal effect, and induce protein denaturation and cells death. The optical and photothermal properties of gold NPs are summarized, and the research progress of selective targeting of gold NPs in biological imaging, cancer diagnoses and photothermal therapy is reviewed.