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We report a class of core–shell structured hybrid nanogels to demonstrate the conception of integrating the functional building blocks into a single nanoparticle system for simultaneously optical temperature-sensing, cancer cell targeting, fluorescence imaging, and combined chemo-photothermal treatment. The hybrid nanogels were constructed by coating the Ag–Au bimetallic NP core with a thermo-responsive nonlinear poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based hydrogel as shell, and semi-interpenetrating the targeting ligands of hyaluronic acid chains into the surface networks of gel shell. The Ag–Au NP core can emit strong visible fluorescence for imaging of mouse melanoma B16F10 cells. The reversible thermo-responsive volume phase transition of the nonlinear PEG-based gel shell cannot only modify the physicochemical environment of the Ag–Au NP core to manipulate the fluorescence intensity for sensing the …