# Engineering Dual-Loaded PLGA Nanoparticles with Gold Nanorods and Doxorubicin as Robust Multimodal Nanoplatforms

## TL;DR

Researchers developed a nanoparticle platform combining chemotherapy and photothermal therapy for cancer treatment, showing good stability and effectiveness.

## Contribution

A dual-loaded PLGA nanoparticle integrating gold nanorods and doxorubicin is developed and optimized for multimodal cancer therapy.

## Key findings

- The dual-loaded nanoparticles show a stable structure with no aggregation or shape deformation over 110 days.
- The nanospheres achieve a significant temperature increase under NIR irradiation, confirming photothermal performance.
- Cytotoxicity in MCF-7 cells is primarily driven by the doxorubicin payload.

## Abstract

Given the complexity of cancer, combination approaches
such as
chemo-photothermal and image-guided therapies are increasingly explored,
driving interest in nanocarriers that integrate multiple structural
abilities within a single platform. Here, we report a dual-functional
nanoplatform in which gold nanorods (AuNRs) and doxorubicin (DOX)
are coencapsulated in poly­(lactic-co-glycolic acid)
(PLGA) nanoparticles (mean diameter ≈ 246 nm) after optimizing
the amount of gold nanorods to be encapsulated. The dual-loaded nanoformulation
yields a narrow size distribution (PDI ≤ 0.1), an adequate
DOX level (32 ± 4 μg mL–1) for chemotherapeutic
efficacy, and sufficient Au content (encapsulation efficiency of 48%)
to achieve an enhanced temperature increase under NIR irradiation.
Comprehensive stability testing for both AuNR-encapsulated PLGA Nps
and bare-PLGA Nps was performed. Continuous centrifugation–redispersion
cycles and 110-day storage at 4 °C reveal no measurable aggregation,
shape deformation, or LSPR dampening in PLGA-encapsulated AuNRs, whereas
free AuNRs lost their signal under the same conditions. Upon 808 nm
irradiation (1 W cm–2, 5 min) the PLGA-Au-DOX nanospheres
create ∼25 °C temperature difference, confirming intact
photothermal performance. MTT assays in MCF-7 human breast cancer
cells show that cytotoxicity is dominated by the chemotherapeutic
payload in the designed system. The findings after detailed gold nanorod
encapsulation optimization and stability studies indicate that the
resulting nanoparticle is a well-characterized, dual-loaded, and reliable
nanocarrier candidate for future in vivo studies on dual-modality
cancer theranostics.