Theranostic nanoparticles have attracted considerable attention in recently revolutionized medicine. Since the last decade, there has been a growing attempt to design various theranostic nanoparticles but difficulties still exist in the fabrication of their biocompatible one. Herein, fluorescent titania nanoparticles -FTN- were fabricated using a one-step green method. This FTN had ultra-high doxorubicin hydrochloride -DOX- loading capacity -encapsulation efficiency 95.50% and loading content 38.20%- that release the loaded drug in response to acidic pH. In vitro cytotoxicity experiments on human osteosarcoma -SaOs-2- and breast cancer -MCF-7- cell lines revealed superior anticancer efficacy -lowered the IC50 concentration by 3- and 5.5-fold for SaOs-2 and MCF-7 cells, respectively- and also better imaging for intracellular tracking of DOX/FTN relative to free DOX. Furthermore, the prepared nanoparticles showed efficient antibacterial activity against both gram-negative -Escherichia coli ATCC 25922- and gram-positive -Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923- bacteria. In this study, we have developed novel theranostic titania nanoparticles with inherent fluorescence property for cancer imaging and therapy.

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