Assembly of gold nanorods with L-cysteine reduced graphene oxide for highly efficient NIR-triggered photothermal therapy.

[Display omitted] • Gold nanorods show a high absorption ability in NIR for high photothermal therapy. • The nontoxicity of AuNR@Lcyst-rGO guarantees the biocompatibility. • The therapeutic ability is owe to synergistic effect of gold nanorods and rGO. Near-infrared (NIR) photothermal therapy is an effective partner to the chemotherapy of tumors with the merits of high therapeutic ability and slight side effect on normal tissues. Herein, we synthesized gold nanorods and assembled them with L-cysteine reduced graphene oxide (AuNR@Lcyst-rGO) for efficient photothermal therapy. The high therapeutic efficacy of AuNR@Lcyst-rGO can be due to the high photothermal effect of gold nanorods and reduced graphene oxide, and the synergistic effect of them. The nontoxicity of L-cysteine also guarantees the comfortable biocompatibility of reduced graphene oxide, which is essential for the photothermal absorber used in human tissue. The results demonstrate that assembly of gold nanorods with reduced graphene oxide (AuNR@Lcyst-rGO) is a promising photothermal agent with high efficient NIR-triggered photothermal therapy efficiency, excellent stability, superior biocompatibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]