A novel bacteriochlorin-gold nanoparticle construct for photoacoustic imaging

Abstract

Herein we report the synthesis of new gold nanoparticle-bacteriochlorin conjugate (Au-NP-PS) as a highly efficient photoacoustic (PA) imaging agent. The conjugate was obtained by reacting a water soluble thio-bacteriochlorin (derived from bacteriochlorophyll-a) with Au-NP. The resulting NPs were characterized by UV-vis, TEM (transmission electron microscopy)/HRTEM (high resolution TEM) and diffraction pattern. The results obtained from in vitro studies suggest that due to conjugation between the PS and Au-NPs, the photoacoustic (PA) signals from the Au-NP-PS were greatly enhanced by a factor of 2.4 compared to that from PS alone.