Scientists in Canada have made nanoparticles that release singlet oxygen when a laser beam is shone on them. The nanoparticles could improve the effectiveness of photodynamic therapy.
Under the right conditions, oxygen, light and photosensitiser molecules combine to generate a short-lived poisonous oxygen species called singlet oxygen. This is the basis of photodynamic therapy, a treatment for some cancers. Normally, photodynamic therapy requires oxygen to be present in the target cells; however, tumours often contain much lower oxygen levels than healthy tissues.
Now, Neil Branda and colleagues at Simon Fraser University have developed a system that does not rely on oxygen being present. The team anchored anthracene endoperoxide ligands onto…
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Read the original journal article in ChemComm:
Photothermal release of singlet oxygen from gold nanoparticles
Amir Mahmoud Asadirad, Zach Erno and Neil R. Branda
Chem. Commun., 2013, 49, 5639-5641
DOI: 10.1039/C3CC42217H
