SERS/NIR‐II Optical Nanoprobes for Multidimensional Tumor Imaging from Living Subjects, Pathology, and Single Cells and Guided NIR‐II Photothermal Therapy

Abstract Molecular imaging‐guided precision photothermal therapy has shown tremendous potential for invasively thermal ablation with solid tumors. However, it is still a pressing clinical need to develop precise and deep‐tissue multi‐scale imaging technologies easily integrated into a single system to boost accurate photothermal treatments. Herein, a SERS/NIR‐II optical nanoprobe assembled by gold nanostars, Raman molecular tags, and silver sulfide quantum dots through silica bridges (named AuDAg 2 S) is reported that allows the combination of the fingerprint‐style surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) imaging and second region near‐infrared (NIR‐II) in‐depth biological fluorescence imaging. It can also yield strong localized surface plasmon resonance for a satisfactory photothermal conversion efficiency of 67.1% at 1064 nm to effectively kill CT26 colon cancer cells. Moreover, the AuDAg 2 S nanoprobes can enhance the detection sensitivity up to the picomolar level and increase the depth of the NIR‐II fluorescence signal up to 1 cm under the excitation of the near‐infrared laser. As a result, the AuDAg 2 S nanoprobes can achieve multidimensional tumor imaging in levels of living subjects, histology, and single cell, and further guided deep NIR‐II photothermal anti‐tumor therapy in vivo. This study offers a promising approach for SERS/NIR‐II whole optical imaging for deep tumor photothermal treatment in future clinical applications.