Team:Tongji Shanghai/Description

Tongji_Shanghai-2016.igem.org Tongji Shanghai

Project

Our project is our story.

Materials Synthesis

    We have synthesized the AuNRs (gold nanorods) and detoxified them for photothermal therapy, also known as optical hyperthermia or photothermal ablation, which is an emerging strategy for treating solid tumors. Gold nanoparticles are capable of confining resonant photons, further inducing coherent surface plasmon oscillation of their conduction band electrons.

    For non-invasive therapy, near infrared (NIR) radiation is chosen because it penetrates tissue more deeply. And we find that AuNRs with a strong SPR(surface plasmon resonance) in the NIR region can show intense absorption of light in the NIR region, also biocompatibility. Even more, it can accumulate in tumor tissue via passive targeting phenomena. PEG can be used to increase biocompatibility, suppress immunogenic responses and decrease adsorption.


Plasmid Construction

    Cancer thermotherapy realized by depositing heat into tumor in a minimally invasive way is a promising alternative to the conventional therapies for cancer treatment. It’s a therapeutic tool to eradicate cancer tumor with minimum toxic effects. To make it better, we plan to improve its ability to target to tumor cells and thermosensitivity of tumor cells. Furthermore, we hope it can reflect the the treatment process. Here, we provide an approach to optimize its tumor targeting and thermosensitivity of tumor cells by hTert promoter and heat shock protein 70(hsp70) prompter and the following tumor suppressor p53. Additionally, the luciferase following p53 makes it a reporter system.


Cell Experiments

    In order to test the toxicity and killing efficiency of our system, we have designed in vitro cytotoxicity test and in vitro photo thermal effect test. Cell viability is tested with cellTiter-Glo luminescent cell viability assay, which can reflect the ATP concentration of cells.



Mice Experiments

    Previous work has shown that golden nanorods is harmless to cells under 100μg/ml, and perform well when exposed to NIR. The feasibility of in vivo near-infrared OPTT is demonstrated after infected plasmids in tumor-bear mice by direct injection. Near-infrared OPTT was performed extra corporally using a portable wave diode laser.