Biocompatible BSA-Ag2S nanoparticles for photothermal therapy of cancer

Photothermal therapy (PTT) induced by near-infrared (NIR) laser has attracted much attention for the innovation of tumor therapy, in which the photothermal agent with good biocompatibility and high efficiency is the prerequisite. Herein, the biocompatible bovine serum albumin (BSA) coated Ag2S nanoparticles (NPs) as photothermal agent were synthesized directly at mild temperature for PTT of cancer. The high photothermal conversion efficiency of the obtained Ag2S NPs with strong NIR absorption is about 18.89%, which make them ideal materials for photothermal agents. Furthermore, the Ag2S NPs can induce effective apoptosis of tumor cells exposed to an NIR laser (808 nm), realizing an effective PTT with excellent killing effect of tumor cells. This work provides a simple reproducible method to fabricate the water-soluble and biocompatible Ag2S NPs, which would provide new insights of designing new functional NPs for the PTT therapy of tumor.