Issue 10, 2020

Photoactivatable dihydroalkaloids for cancer cell imaging and chemotherapy with high spatiotemporal resolution

Abstract

Chemotherapeutics with systemic administration usually suffer from low treatment efficacy and off-target toxicity. On the contrary, photoactivatable cancer theranostics can achieve image-guided precise control of therapeutic dose and location. However, the conventional photoactivatable chemotherapeutics usually require decoration of the chemotherapeutics with additional photo-responsive groups through tedious synthetic procedures, which can lead to undesirable toxic byproducts and seriously restrict their applications. Herein, we propose a new strategy for photoactivatable cancer theranostics based on a photooxidative dehydrogenation reaction, which is only associated with water as the byproduct. To demonstrate the power of this strategy, we utilized the natural dihydrobenzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids of DHCHE and DHSAN as photoactivatable theranostics to achieve the selective imaging and killing of cancer cells by in situ transformation into nucleus-targeted CHE and SAN under light irradiation. Notably, CHE features aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics, which can be used for the precise control of the photoactivatable therapeutic dose. This photoactivatable strategy based on a photooxidative dehydrogenation reaction is thus promising for precise cancer treatment in the clinic.

Graphical abstract: Photoactivatable dihydroalkaloids for cancer cell imaging and chemotherapy with high spatiotemporal resolution

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
08 Jun 2020
Accepted
17 Jul 2020
First published
17 Jul 2020

Mater. Horiz., 2020,7, 2696-2701

Photoactivatable dihydroalkaloids for cancer cell imaging and chemotherapy with high spatiotemporal resolution

X. Ling, L. Huang, Y. Li, Q. Wan, Z. Wang, A. Qin, M. Gao and B. Z. Tang, Mater. Horiz., 2020, 7, 2696 DOI: 10.1039/D0MH00931H

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