Noninvasive Detection and Thermal Ablation Therapy of Endometriosis Using Silica-Coated Gold Nanorods

Noninvasive Detection and Thermal Ablation Therapy of Endometriosis Using Silica-Coated Gold Nanorods

Panangattukara Prabhakaran Praveen Kumar,^†a Seock-Jin Chung,^†a Kay Hadrick,^a Meghan L.Hill,^a Maggie Lee,^a Tae Hoon Kim,^b Jae-Wook Jeong,^b Taeho kim^a*

^†P. P.P.K and ^†S.-J.C. contributed equally to this work.

^aDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Institute for Quantitative Health Science and

Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA; ^bDepartment of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

 


Abstract Text: Endometriosis (EM) is a gynecological disease where tissue like the endometrium grows outside the uterus. Current diagnostic methods are mainly through surgical visualization with histological verification, and there's a need for noninvasive approaches. Herein, we report photoacoustic imaging (PAI) can be a noninvasive imaging modality for deep-seated EM by employing FITC-tagged, silica-coated gold nanorods (AuNR@Si(F)-PEG) as the contrast agent. When the nanoparticles are injected intravenously into mice with EM, the strong PA signals from AuNRs are detected from the EM tissues by particle accumulation in the EM lesions through the enhanced permeability and retention effect. Additionally, due to the presence of FITC, the NPs facilitate easy identification and isolation of endometriosis tissue under a fluorescence dissection microscope. Owing to the high photothermal ablation property of AuNRs, the NPs can be used for laser-induced thermal ablation therapeutics to shrink the endometriosis lesions, validated by imaging, pro-apoptotic marker cleaved caspase-3, and H&E staining. This technique provides new avenues for studying endometriosis development, progression, and the related treatment modalities.