POM Decorated Au Nanostars for Tri-therapy. – DANthe

Cancer and bacterial infections are two of the main healthcare challenges humanity has to face nowadays. The side effects and limited efficiency of traditional cancer treatments as well as the development of multi resistant bacteria make it urgent to develop new strategies. Beyond the fact that both are two of the main public health concerns, they are intertwined. The DANthe project objective is to elaborate polyoxometalate (POM) decorated gold nanostars (AuNSs) that combine chemotherapy using a new active agent (POM), photothermal (PTT) and photodynamic therapies (PDT) in the NIR window to obtain unprecedented active tri-therapy drugs acting against both cancer and bacterial infections. We propose herein for the first time to prepare AuNSs using hybrid organic-inorganic POM which will combine the POM specific biological properties, the PTT and the generation of ROS of the AuNSs and singlet oxygen storage/release unit on the organic part of the POM. Preliminary test in cellular environnent under irradiation will be performed to evaluate the nano-object efficiency for the targeted applications.