Facile green synthesis and characterization of water soluble superparamagnetic iron oxide-gold porphyrin conjugate for improved photodynamic therapy

Abstract

Porphyrin has been proven to be an efficient photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy (PDT). However, the problem of undesired localization in non-tumour environments has lowered its therapeutic efficacy. To make porphyrin tumour specific, we have successfully conjugated a meso-substituted symmetric 4-hydroxyphenyl porphyrin (THPP) to superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles-gold core-shell nanostructure (SPIONs-Au). The magnetic porphyrin conjugate (MPC) was characterized using UV-Visible spectrophotometry (UV-Vis), Photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The as-synthesized MPC exhibited strong attraction towards external magnetic field and high singlet oxygen quantum yield sufficient for the eradication of cancer cells in vitro.