Pegylated gold nanostructures for photoacoustic imaging and photothermal therapy of tumor lesions

A photoacoustic agent chosen among the group consisting of a metal-based nanoparticle made of gold, silver, or hybrid gold/silver, an organic photoacoustic dye, cyanine dyes, phthalein and xanthene dyes, squaraine and croconaine dyes, tetrapyrrole, BODIPY dyes, curcumin dyes, and IRDye800 linked to a ligand of the integrin family receptors, preferably a peptide containing an integrin binding motif, and antibody or part of an antibody, a peptidomimetic or an aptamer, via a crosslinker selected from the group consisting of a crosslinker bearing amino and sulfhydryl reactive groups, bearing amino and azide/alkyne reactive groups, bearing lipoamide/lipoic acid (LA) or sulfhydryl or disulphide containing compounds.