Functionalized gold and gold-iron nanoparticles obtained by laser ablation in liquid for dynamic cell interaction

The aim of this master thesis is to develop a dynamic nanomedicine vector effective at cellular level using a construct of functionalized gold or gold-iron nanoparticles. The research activity started with the laser assisted synthesis of nanoparticles in liquid environment. The first step of the synthesis consisted in the Laser Ablation in Liquid (LAL) of a metallic target. In order to achieve the desired size of nanoparticles, the LAL was followed by laser fragmentation in liquid, where the colloid is irradiated with visible nanosecond laser pulses to photofragment the nanoparticles. Then, the research endeavor considered the best surface chemical functionalities for the dynamic interaction of the nanoparticles with cells. In particular, in order to efficiently link the desired functionalities to particles’ surfaces, it was necessary to use thiol derivatives, because of the strong covalent bond that the SH group forms with gold atoms. The final step consisted in the characterization and the test of the best performing nanoparticles formulations in phantoms, before passing to in vitro experiments to assess the biocompatibility, the multimodal imaging contrast agent ability and their theranostic functions for radiosensitizations with x-ray radiotherapy.