@article{Yaraki_Wu_Middha_Wu_Rezaei_Liu_Tan_2021, title={Gold Nanostars-AIE Theranostic Nanodots with Enhanced Fluorescence and Photosensitization Towards Effective Image-Guided Photodynamic Therapy}, volume={13}, url={https://www.nmlett.org/index.php/nml/article/view/822}, DOI={10.1007/s40820-020-00583-2}, abstractNote={<p>Dual-functional aggregation-induced photosensitizers (AIE-PSs) with singlet oxygen generation (SOG) ability and bright fluorescence in aggregated state have received much attention in image-guided photodynamic therapy (PDT). However, designing an AIE-PS with both high SOG and intense fluorescence via molecular design is still challenging. In this work, we report a new nanohybrid consisting of gold nanostar (AuNS) and AIE-PS dots with enhanced fluorescence and photosensitization for theranostic applications. The spectral overlap between the extinction of AuNS and fluorescence emission of AIE-PS dots (665&nbsp;nm) is carefully selected using five different AuNSs with distinct localized surface plasmon (LSPR) peaks. Results show that all the AuNSs can enhance the <sup>1</sup>O<sub>2</sub> production of AIE-PS dots, among which the AuNS with LSPR peak at 585&nbsp;nm exhibited the highest <sup>1</sup>O<sub>2</sub> enhancement factor of 15-fold with increased fluorescence brightness. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest enhancement factor reported for the metal-enhanced singlet oxygen generation systems. The Au585@AIE-PS nanodots were applied for simultaneous fluorescence imaging and photodynamic ablation of HeLa cancer cells with strongly enhanced PDT efficiency in vitro. This study provides a better understanding of the metal-enhanced AIE-PS nanohybrid systems, opening up new avenue towards advanced image-guided PDT with greatly improved efficacy.</p> <p>Highlights:</p> <p>1 Development of Au nanostar@AIE nanodots photosensitizers for theranostic applications.<br>2 Achieving excellent metal-enhanced fluorescence and singlet oxygen generation efficiency simultaneously.<br>3 Mechanism study of the role of FRET on metal-enhanced singlet oxygen generation.</p>}, journal={Nano-Micro Letters}, author={Yaraki, Mohammad Tavakkoli and Wu, Min and Middha, Eshu and Wu, Wenbo and Rezaei, Soroosh Daqiqeh and Liu, Bin and Tan, Yen Nee}, year={2021}, month={Jan.}, pages={58} }