Laser induced thermal explosion mode for selective nano-photothermolysis of cancer cells

Renat R. Letfullin; Vladimir P. Zharov; Charles Joenathan; Thomas F. George

doi:10.1117/12.704979

7 February 2007 Laser-induced thermal explosion mode for selective nano-photothermolysis of cancer cells

Renat R. Letfullin, Vladimir P. Zharov, Charles Joenathan, Thomas F. George

Proceedings Volume 6436, Complex Dynamics and Fluctuations in Biomedical Photonics IV; 64360I (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.704979
Event: SPIE BiOS, 2007, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

A new mechanism is proposed for selective laser killing of abnormal cells by laser thermal explosion of single nanoparticles - "nano-bombs" - delivered to the cells. Thermal explosion of the nanoparticles is realized when the heat generates within the strongly-absorbing target more rapidly than the heat can diffuse away. On the basis of simple energy balance, it is shown that the lower level of the threshold energy density of a single laser pulse required for thermal explosion of solid gold nanospehere is about 40 mJ/cm², which is well below the safety standard for medical lasers (100 mJ/cm²) for healthy tissue and cells. The nanoparticle's explosion energy density can be reduced further (up to 11 mJ/cm²) by using gold nanorods due to higher plasmon-resonance absorption efficiency of nanorods. Additionally, the nanorods optical resonance lies in the near-IR region, where biological tissue transmissivity is the highest. Here, the effective therapeutic effect for cancer cell killing can be achieved due to nonlinear phenomena, which accompany the thermal explosion of the nanoparticles: generation of the strong shock wave with supersonic expansion of dense vapor in the cell volume, producing sound waves and optical plasma.

Citation Download Citation

Renat R. Letfullin, Vladimir P. Zharov, Charles Joenathan, and Thomas F. George "Laser-induced thermal explosion mode for selective nano-photothermolysis of cancer cells", Proc. SPIE 6436, Complex Dynamics and Fluctuations in Biomedical Photonics IV, 64360I (7 February 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.704979

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