Photothermal therapy (PTT) is a promising (co)treatment with translation potentiality in oncology. Nowadays, the plasmonic nanoparticle-mediated photothermal effect (PT) relies on two well established NIR-responsive platforms: gold nanorods and nanoshells. Nonetheless, these nanostructures are affected by: (i) re-shaping after irradiation that prevents multiple PT treatments, and (ii) severe limitations to clinical translation due to metal persistence issues. Furthermore, evaluation of nanoparticle performance is usually accomplished in vitro or in mouse models, reducing the translational potential of the findings. Here, we report both the straightforward production of narrow-NIR-absorbing gold ultrasmall-in-nano architectures (tNAs) and their suitability as platforms for PT upon CW-irradiation at 808 nm. PT efficiency is fully assessed against 2D cell cultures and customized 3D pancreatic adenocarcinoma models. Remarkably, the morphology of the tNAs is not affected by laser irradiation, allowing for repeated PT cycles and preserving their ability to avoid long-term body persistence in excretory system organs.

A protocol to synthesize novel inorganic nanosystems that could avoid the issue of persistence/accumulation in organisms is presented.

Plastic debris accounts for the most substantial part of marine pollution and its degradation byproducts are omnipresent. Beyond representing a serious potential hazard for the marine ecosystem, micro- and nanoplastics may easily enter the human food chain with effects on health that are still poorly understood and undefined. In particular, while polypropylene (PP) is amongst the most commonly detected plastic fragments, studies to evaluate its traceability and role in food chain are still very limited mainly due to a lack of easy synthesis routes for model PP micro- and nanoparticles. In this work, we have developed a protocol for high-throughput production of PP nanoparticles in the size range 80–350 nm, via the oil-in-water emulsion technique in the presence of the sodium cholate bile salt as a nonhazardous surfactant. In addition, the traceability of PP has been achieved by introducing selected markers into PP nanoparticles containing inorganic metals and/or fluorescent dyes such as plasmonic ultrasmall gold nanoparticles, quantum dots, and/or luminescent dyes. Moreover, PP nanoparticles are stable in an aqueous environment due to the biocompatible surfactant and enable the detection by multiple techniques, thanks to their modulable core. Therefore, they represent a significant advance in the development of model plastic nanomaterials for different applications, which might include toxicity and biodistribution studies.

Noble metal nanostructures have demonstrated a number of intriguing features for both medicine and catalysis. However, accumulation issues have prevented their clinical translation, while their use in catalysis has shown serious efficiency and stability hurdles. Here we introduce a simple and robust synthetic protocol for passion fruit-like nano-architectures composed by a silica shell embedding polymeric arrays of ultrasmall noble metal nanoparticles. These nano-architectures show interesting features for both oncology and catalysis. They avoid the issue of persistence in organism thanks to their fast biodegradation in renal clearable building blocks. Furthermore, their calcination results in yolk-shell structures composed by naked metal or alloy nanospheres shielded from aggregation by a silica shell.

Passion fruit-like nano-architectures (NAs) are all-in-one platforms of increasing interest for the translation of metal nanoparticles into clinics. NAs are nature-inspired disassembling inorganic theranostics, which jointly combine most of the appealing behaviors of noble metal nanoparticles with their potential organism excretion. Despite their unique and promising properties, NAs in vivo interactions and potential adverse effects have not yet been investigated. In this study, we employ zebrafish (Danio Rerio) to assess the development toxicity of NAs as well as their uptake and bioaccumulation at different stages of growth. The evaluation of multiple endpoints related to the toxicity clearly indicates that NAs do not induce mortality, developmental defects, or alterations on the hatching rate and behavior of zebrafish. Moreover, the analysis of nanostructures uptake and biodistribution demonstrates that NAs are successfully internalized and present a specific localization. Overall, our results demonstrate that NAs are able to pass through the embryos chorion and accumulate in specific tissues, exhibiting an impressive biocompatibility.