Gold nanorods with a hematoporphyrin-loaded silica shell for dual-modality photodynamic and photothermal treatment of tumors in vivo Georgy Terentyuk 1,4 , Elizaveta Panfilova 1,2 , Vitaly Khanadeev 1,2 , Daniil Chumakov 1 , Elina Genina 1 , Alexey Bashkatov 1 , Valery Tuchin 1,3,5 , Alla Bucharskaya 6 , Galina Maslyakova 6 , Nikolai Khlebtsov 1,2 , and Boris Khlebtsov 1,2 (  ) 1 Saratov State University, 83 Astrakhanskaya, Saratov 410012, Russia 2 Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants and Microorganisms, 13 pr. Entuziastov, Saratov 410049, Russia 3 Institute of Precise Mechanics and Control of RAS, 24 Rabochaya, Saratov 410028, Russia 4 Ulyanovsk State University, 42 Lev Tolstoy, Ulyanovsk 432017, Russia 5 Optoelectronics and Measurement Techniques Laboratory, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4500, Oulu FIN-90014, Finland 6 Saratov State Medical University, 112 Bolshaya Kazachia, Saratov, 410012, Russia Received: 1 August 2013 Revised: 6 December 2013 Accepted: 10 December 2013 © Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 KEYWORDS nanocomposites, gold nanorods, mesoporous silica, hematoporphyrin, photodynamic and photothermal therapy ABSTRACT Nanocomposites (NCs) consisting of a gold nanorod core and a mesoporous silica shell doped with hematoporphyrin (HP) have been fabricated in order to improve the efficiency of cancer treatment by combining photothermal and photodynamic therapies (PDT + PTT) in vivo. In addition to the long-wavelength plasmon resonance near 810–830 nm, the fabricated NCs exhibited a 400-nm absorbance peak corresponding to bound HP, generated singlet oxygen under 633-nm excitation near the 632.5-nm Q-band, and produced heat under a 808-nm near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. These modalities were used for a combined PDT + PTT treatment of large (about 3 cm 3 ) solid tumors in vivo with a xenorafted tumor rat model. NCs were directly injected into tumors and irradiated simultaneously with 633-nm and 808-nm lasers to stimulate the combined photodynamic and photothermal activities of NCs. The efficiency of the combined therapy was evaluated by optical coherence tomography, histological analysis, and by measurements of the tumor volume growth during a 21-day period. The NC-mediated PDT led to weak changes in tissue histology and to a moderate 20% decrease in the tumor volume. In contrast, the combined PDT + PTT treatment resulted in the large-area tumor necrosis and led to dramatic decrease in the tumor volume. Nano Research 2014, 7(3): 325–337 DOI 10.1007/s12274-013-0398-3 Address correspondence to bkhl@ibppm.sgu.ru