Introduction: There are several methods for treatment of different cancers, among which, photodynamic therapy has been considered because of its minimal side effects of the treatment compared to some other methods. The three most important factors in photodynamic therapy are irradiation light, photosensitizer and reactive oxygen species, which lead to the death of cancer cells. The use of nanoparticles in this method causes targeted and minimal damage to healthy tissues and the possibility of treating deep tumors.
Method: In this study, Doxorubicin conjugated titanium oxide nanoparticle doped with strontium impurity was synthesized by co-precipitation method and was investigated its capability to use in cancer treatment by photodynamic therapy.
Results and discussion: X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was used to study the structure of synthesized nanoparticles and for the morphology of the nanoparticles, scanning electron microscope (SEM) was utilized. FT-IR spectra as used to study the functional groups and the optical properties of nanoparticles were investigated by using photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The usability of the synthesized nanoparticles in photodynamic therapy using methylene blue and anthracene reagents was investigated. According to the results, a more than 50% reduction in the absorbance intensity of methylene blue and anthracene reagents after irradiation in the presence of the doxorubicin conjugated nanoparticles, indicates the production of the hydroxyl radical and singlet oxygen, respectively.