Gold nanorods with a noncovalently tailorable surface for multi-modality image-guided chemo-photothermal cancer therapy.

The first cucurbit[7]uril functionalized Au nanorods were developed, which allowed noncovalently tailorable surface modification with a targeting ligand and a guest drug molecule, via strong host-guest interactions. The novel nanoplatform exhibited effective, image-guided, targeted chemo-photothermal cancer therapy in vitro and in vivo.