Controlled singlet oxygen generation via plasmonic heating of gold nanorods

Abstract

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is the up-and-coming and developing methodology in order to treat various cancer tissues. The success of therapeutic action is directly related to the presence of cytotoxic singlet oxygen (SO) in tumor tissues. However, the feasibility of PDT is bounded by two major factors, hypoxia and the requirement of incident light penetration through cancer tissue. With these considerations, we have combined aromatic endoperoxides and gold nanorods so as to accomplish the possible restrictions. In this project, we synthesized and characterized both PEGylated anthracenic endoperoxides and gold nanorods separately and then further characterization was achieved for the combination of gold nanorods and aromatic endoperoxides. We have successfully proved that the thermal decomposition of endoperoxide molecule was carried out by irradiation of gold nanorods that resulted in the generation of both singlet and molecular oxygen.