Browsing by Author "Urban, Alexander S."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Externally modulated theranostic nanoparticles
    (Pioneer Bioscience Publishing Company, 2013) Urban, Cordula; Urban, Alexander S.; Charron, Heather; Joshi, Amit
    Externally modulated nanoparticles comprise a rapidly advancing class of cancer nanotherapeutics, which combine the favorable tumor accumulation of nanoparticles, with external spatio-temporal control on therapy delivery via optical, magnetic, or ultrasound modalities. The local control on therapy enables higher tumor treatment efficacy, while simultaneously reducing off-target effects. The nanoparticle interactions with external fields have an additional advantage of frequently generating an imaging signal, and thus such agents provide theranostic (both diagnostic and therapeutic) capabilities. In this review, we classify the emerging externally modulated theranostic nanoparticles according to the mode of external control and describe the physiochemical mechanisms underlying the external control of therapy, and illustrate the major embodiments of nanoparticles in each class with proven biological efficacy: (I) electromagnetic radiation in visible and near infrared range is being exploited for gold based and carbon nanostructures with tunable surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for imaging and photothermal therapy (PTT) of cancer, photochemistry based manipulations are employed for light sensitive liposomes and porphyrin based nanoparticles; (II) Magnetic field based manipulations are being developed for iron-oxide based nanostructures for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetothermal therapy; (III) ultrasound based methods are primarily being employed to increase delivery of conventional drugs and nanotherapeutics to tumor sites.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Nanoparticles Heat through Light Localization
    (American Chemical Society, 2014) Hogan, Nathaniel J.; Urban, Alexander S.; Ayala-Orozco, Ciceron; Pimpinelli, Alberto; Nordlander, Peter; Halas, Naomi J.; Laboratory for Nanophotonics; Rice Quantum Institute
    Aqueous solutions containing light-absorbing nanoparticles have recently been shown to produce steam at high efficiencies upon solar illumination, even when the temperature of the bulk fluid volume remains far below its boiling point. Here we show that this phenomenon is due to a collective effect mediated by multiple light scattering from the dispersed nanoparticles. Randomly positioned nanoparticles that both scatter and absorb light are able to concentrate light energy into mesoscale volumes near the illuminated surface of the liquid. The resulting light absorption creates intense localized heating and efficient vaporization of the surrounding liquid. Light trapping-induced localized heating provides the mechanism for low-temperature light-induced steam generation and is consistent with classical heat transfer.