Bio-templated Synthesis Of HBc-Metal Sulfide Nanoparticles For Near Infrared Light Guided Photothermal Therapy

Metal sulfide nanoparticles have broad application prospects in biological fields such as photothermal therapy and bio-imaging because of their unique optical properties.However,in order to realize the practical application of metal sulfide nanoparticles in the future biological field,the first thing that needs to be improved is biocompatibility of metal sulfide nanoparticles.In recent years,the biological template method has been widely used as a mild,simple and green preparation method.As a typical biological template material,virus-like particles have the ability of molecular recognition and self-assembly,and specially have affinity for metal ions to guide material nucleation and growth.Virus-like particles also have good biocompatibility and functional modification,which can be further explored in future practical applications.The main work of this paper can be summarized as the following three aspects:1.HBc144-His VLPs were prepared by inserting a histidine tag at the C-terminus by genetic engineering.Then using this virus-like particle as a biological template to prepare metal sulfide nanoparticles with mild reaction conditions and simple operation,which can effectively realize the nucleation growth of copper ions in the inner cavity of the protein and further synthesize copper sulfide nanoparticles.By characterizing the shape and size of the material,analyzing the phase composition,and exploring the photothermal properties,it can be further confirmed that the prepared HBc-CuS nanoparticles have good monodispersity,uniform size,and photothermal conversion.The efficiency and photothermal stability indicate that HBc-Cus nanoparticles can be successfully prepared with HBc144-His VLPs as biological templates.2.We further explored the biocompatibility and photothermal conversion properties of HBc-CuS nanoparticles in vivo and in vitro.At the cellular level,the effects of HBc-CuS nanoparticles on cell uptake,the toxicity of materials,and the effect of photothermal killing of tumor cells were evaluated by related experiments such as cell uptake,cytotoxic MTT,and apoptosis.At the same time,a mouse tumor model was constructed.The in vivo antitumor photothermal effect of HBc-CuS nanoparticles was investigated by drug administration and laser irradiation.The experimental results show that HBc-CuS nanoparticles exhibit high cell uptake rate,low toxicity,and have significant photothermal properties to kill tumor cells.It is hopeful as a potential near-infrared photothermal reagent for photothermal therapy.3.We used HBc144-His VLPs as biological template to explore the experimental methods for preparing nickel sulfide,cadmium sulfide and silver sulfide nanoparticles.By appropriately adjusting the input amount,the corresponding nanoparticles can be prepared initially.As a biocompatible,functionally modified protein nanocage,HBc VLPs can be used as biotemplates for the synthesis of metal sulfide nanoparticles,and according to the characteristics of the corresponding metal sulfides and functionalization of HBc VLPs,we can achieve multi-modal multi-functional biological application effects.