Polylysine as a functional biopolymer to couple gold nanorods to tumor-tropic cells

Background: The delivery of plasmonic particles, such as gold nanorods, to the tumor microenvironment has attracted much interest in biomedical optics for topical applications as the photoacoustic imaging and photothermFual ablation of cancer. However, the systemic injection of free particles still crashes into a complexity of biological barriers, such as the reticuloendothelial system, that prevent their efficient biodistribution. In this context, the notion to exploit the inherent features of tumor-tropic cells for the creation of a Trojan horse is emerging as a plausible alternative.