Reversible assembly–disassembly of plasmonic spherical nucleic acids enabling temperature-self-controllable and biomarker-activatable photothermal effects

Abstract

Since the photothermal heating of plasmonic spherical nucleic acids (pSNAs) depends on the self-assembly level and melting temperature (T_m), a temperature-self-controllable and biomarker-activatable photothermal effect in vivo was thus achieved using the T_m-dependent assembly–disassembly of pSNAs.