Biomimetic Gold Nanoshell-Loaded Macrophage for Photothermal Biomedicine

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of photothermal treatment (PTT) with gold nanoshell (ANS) using a macrophage-mediated delivery system in a head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell line. To achieve this, ANS-loaded rat macrophages (ANS-MAs) were prepared via the coculture method with ANS. The human HNSCC (FaDu cell) and macrophage (rat macrophage; NR8383 cell) hybrid spheroid models were generated by the centrifugation method to determine the possibility of using ANS-MAs as a cancer therapy. These ANS-MAs were set into the tumor and macrophage hybrid spheroid model to measure PTT efficacy. Kinetic analysis of the spheroid growth pattern revealed that this PTT process caused a decreasing pattern in the volume of the hybrid model containing ANS-MAs (p