MultifunctionalHybrid Gels Containing Silver Nanoparticles,Gold Nanorods, and Protoporphyrin IX for Synergistic Photothermal–PhotodynamicTherapy

Abstract

Abstract Photodynamic and photothermal therapies, enhanced by nanotechnology, show great potential in skin cancer treatment. This study reports the synthesis and characterization of hybrid sodium alginate gels conjugated with protoporphyrin-IX, associated with gold and silver nanoparticles (AgNP/AuNR⊂PpIX-Alg). Silver nanoparticles improved singlet oxygen generation under a 660 nm light (quantum yield of 26.4%), while gold nanorods achieved a 54.3% photothermal conversion efficiency at 785 nm. Dual laser irradiation (660 and 785 nm) led to a strong synergistic therapeutic effect, reducing melanoma cell viability (B16–F10) to 9.83%, with no cytotoxicity to L929 fibroblast cells. These results support AgNP/AuNR⊂PpIX-Alg as a promising platform for multimodal cancer therapy.