Integrin-targeting Metal-phenolic Nanoparticles: A Robust Photoacoustic Contrast Agent for Cancer Imaging

In this work, we applied supramolecular-template-assisted stratge to fabricate nano yolk-shell structures. The idea is to wrap a plasmonic core in a dynamic polyphenol network, and fuse a second polyphenol shell on it. After template degradation, polyphenol shell creates a semi-soft cavity to host the core and additional cargos, while provides an highly-active interface to incoporate targeting peptide motifs. In this design, we integrated plasmonic (metal) and photosensitive (polyphenol) materials in a signle yolk-shell structure. Novolty of this partice includes tunable nanomechanical properties for enhanced photoacoustic imaging, photothermal transduction, and deep-tumor penetration.