In a neutral or weak alkaline medium, the gold nanoparticle can combine with an anthracycline anticancer drugs such as epirubicin, daunorubicin or mitoxantrone by the virtue of electrostatic and hydrophobic interaction, forming aggregate with bigger diameters. As a result, the resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS) was enhanced greatly, and a new RRS spectrum appeared. The maximum RRS signals of three ion-association complexes were all located at about 313 nm, and there were another wide scattering strip between 510～610 nm. There was a linear relationship between the RRS intensity and the drug concentration in the range of 0.009～0.5 for epirubicin (EPI), 0.010～0.7 for daunorubicin (DNR) and 0.030～1.2 mg•mL^－1 for mitoxantrone (MXT), respectively. Their detection limits (3σ) for three drugs were 2.7 for epirubicin, 3.1 for daunorubicin and 9.0 ng•mL^－1 for mitoxantrone. In this work, the characteristics of the absorption, fluorescence and RRS spectra, the optimum conditions of the reaction and the properties of analytical chemistry were investigated. A sensitive, simple and new method for the determination of anthracycline anticancer drugs based on RRS has been developed.

Key words: gold nanoparticle, resonance Rayleigh scattering, anthracycline anticancer drug