The activation of anticancer molecules with visible light constitutes an elegant strategy to target tumors and to improve the selectivity of treatments. In this context, we report here a visible-light activatable bis-platinum complex () incorporating an organic photo-switchable ligand based on the dimethyldihydropyrene moiety. Illumination of this metal complex with red light (660 nm) under air readily produces the corresponding endoperoxide form (). These two metal complexes exhibit different DNA binding properties and, more importantly, we show that only the photogenerated is able to penetrate into cancer cell nuclei, where it is then capable of releasing cytotoxic singlet oxygen. This study represents the first proof-of-concept showing that dimethyldihydropyrene derivatives can be used to transport and deliver singlet oxygen into cancer cell nuclei upon visible-light activation.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10829881PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.108704DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

singlet oxygen
12
cancer cell
8
cell nuclei
8
optical modulation
4
modulation cell
4
cell nucleus
4
nucleus penetration
4
penetration singlet
4
oxygen release
4
release switchable
4

Similar Publications

Nanosheet-shaped WS/ICG nanocomposite for photodynamic/photothermal synergistic bacterial clearance and cutaneous regeneration on infectious wounds.

Biomater Adv

January 2025

Key Laboratory of Tropical Translational Medicine of Ministry of Education, Hainan Medical University-The University of Hong Kong Joint Laboratory of Tropical Infectious Diseases, School of Basic Medical Sciences and Life Sciences, Hainan Medical University, Haikou 571199, China. Electronic address:

Bacterial infections present a significant threat to human health, a challenge that is intensified by the slow pace of novel antibiotic development and the swift emergence of bacterial resistance. The development of novel antibacterial agents is crucial. Indocyanine green (ICG), a widely used imaging dye, efficiently generates reactive oxygen species (ROS) and heat for treating bacterial infections but suffers from aggregation and instability, limiting its efficacy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Turning Waste into Treasure: Functionalized Biomass-Derived Carbon Dots for Superselective Visualization and Eradication of Gram-Positive Bacteria.

Adv Sci (Weinh)

January 2025

State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biomaterials and Devices, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 2 Southeast University Road, Nanjing, 211189, P. R. China.

Gram-positive bacteria pose significant threats to human health, necessitating the development of targeted bacterial detection and eradication strategies. Nevertheless, current approaches often suffer from poor targeting specificity. Herein, the study utilizes purple rice lixivium to synthesize biomass carbon dots (termed BCDs) with wheat germ agglutinin-like residues for precisely targeting Gram-positive bacteria.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Environmental changes, such as applied medication, nutrient depletion, and accumulation of metabolic residues, affect cell culture activity. The combination of these factors reflects on the local temperature distribution and local oxygen concentration towards the cell culture scaffold. However, determining the temporal variation of local temperature, independent of local oxygen concentration changes in biological specimens, remains a significant technological challenge.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nanohybrids combining phenylboronic acid-modified carbon dots (PCDs) and proteinase K have been engineered for addressing the formidable challenges of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) against bacterial biofilm infections, overcoming biofilm barrier obstruction, the limited diffusion of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and the inadequate ROS generation of traditional photosensitizers. PCDs are formulated for superior water solubility and robust singlet oxygen (O) production, mitigating issues related to dispersion and aggregation-induced quenching typical of conventional photosensitizers. The conjugation of phenylboronic acid to CDs not only enhanced O generation through increased electron-hole separation but also imparted strong bacterial binding capabilities to the PCDs, enabling broad-spectrum sterilization by maximizing the ROS-mediated bacterial destruction.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Thiophene engineering of near-infrared D-π-A nano-photosensitizers for enhanced multiple phototheranostics and inhibition of tumor metastasis.

J Colloid Interface Sci

January 2025

Biomedical Polymers Laboratory, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123 China; College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123 China. Electronic address:

Phototherapy including photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) is widely used for cancer treatment because of its non-invasiveness, spatiotemporal controllability, and low side effects. However, the PTT and PDT capabilities of photosensitizers (PSs) compete so it's still a crucial challenge to simultaneously enhance the PDT and PTT capabilities of PSs. In this work, donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A)-based boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) dyes were developed via molecular engineering and applied for enhanced phototherapy of triple-negative breast cancer.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!