CoS nanocrystals as new nanoplatforms for photothermal therapy of arterial inflammation.

Cardiovascular diseases caused by atherosclerosis (AS) seriously damage human health. Nano-photothermal technology has been proven to inhibit the development of vascular inflammation by inhibiting the proliferation of inflammatory macrophages. However, photothermal therapy can inhibit the enrichment of AS macrophages in the early stage, but the inhibitory effect is insufficient in the later stage. Herein, we designed and prepared CoS nanocrystals by a simple hydrothermal method as new nanoplatforms for efficient photothermal therapy of arterial inflammation. CoS nanocrystals exhibited the degradability to release the cobalt ions, and can inhibit the proliferation of macrophages both and resulting from the slowly released cobalt ions. Moreover, CoS nanocrystals showed intense absorption in the NIR region, thus showing excellent photothermal performance. When irradiated by an 808 nm laser, the photothermal effect of CoS nanocrystals can more efficiently kill the macrophages which play an important role in the development of atherosclerosis. As far as we know, this is the first work on CoS nanocrystals for photothermal therapy of arterial inflammation.