Noto Susanto Gultom, Fasih Bintang Ilhami, Syahputra Wibowo, Yudhi Nugraha, Misganaw Alemu Zeleke, Henni Setia Ningsih, Lathifah Puji Hastuti, Celca Rahmatunnisa, Dong-Hau Kuo, Mati Horprathum, Chi-Hsien Huang, Zong-Liang Tseng, Ferry Faizal
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising technique for cancer treatment using active and selective photosensitizer materials. In this work, we investigate the effect of varying Fe doping on ZnO host structure using systematic and comprehensive characterizations. The structural analysis confirmed that Fe successfully doped into ZnO at low concentration of 2.5 % while increasing the Fe ≥5 % formed Fe-doped ZnO/Fe3O4 nanocomposite. The bandgap energy also decreases from 3.17 eV (Fe-0 %) to 2.27 eV (Fe-20 %) enhanced visible-light absorption. Compared with previously reported Fe3O4 /ZnO systems, this single-step synthesized nanocomposite demonstrates improved structural uniformity and a more pronounced bandgap reduction, enabling superior visible-light activation. The results of in vitro MTT assays demonstrated that selective phototoxicity against MA-104 normal cells maintained >80 % viability under irradiation up to 200 µg/mL, whereas MDA-MB-231 cancer cells showed a sharp decline in viability with an IC₅₀ of 49.6 µg/mL for Fe-20 % under 635 nm light. Molecular docking revealed favorable interactions of the Fe-doped ZnO/Fe3O4 composite with apoptosis-regulating proteins (Caspase-3, BAX, and BCL-2), supporting its mechanistic role in apoptosis modulation. This represents a marked improvement in cytotoxic selectivity compared to previously reported Fe3O4/ZnO nanocomposites, confirming the effectiveness of the optimized Fe-doping strategy. These findings highlight Fe-doped ZnO/ Fe3O4 as a promising nanoplatform for efficient and selective PDT with minimized toxicity to normal cells. © 2026 Elsevier B.V.
Department of Physics, Universitas Padjadjaran, Jalan Raya Bandung-Sumedang KM 21, Sumedang, Jatinangor, 45363, Indonesia; Functional Nano Powder, University Center of Excellence, Universitas Padjadjaran, Jalan Raya Bandung-Sumedang KM 21, Sumedang, Jatinangor, 45363, Indonesia; Department of Natural Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Surabaya, 60231, Indonesia; Eijkman Research Center for Molecular Biology, National Research and Innovation Agency, Bogor, 16911, Indonesia; Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Limerick, Limerick, V94 T9PX, Ireland; School of Materials Science and Engineering, Bahir Dar Institute of Technology, Bahir Dar University, P.O. Box 26, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No.43, Sec. 4, Keelung Road, Taipei, 10607, Taiwan; Graduate School, Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia; Opto-Electrochemical Sensing Research Team, National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, Pathum Thani, 12120, Thailand; Department of Materials Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City, 243303, Taiwan; Department of Electronic Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City, 24301, Taiwan
