Issue 26, 2024

Regulating donor configuration to develop AIE-active type I photosensitizers for lipid droplet imaging and high-performance photodynamic therapy under hypoxia

Abstract

Type I photodynamic therapy is considered to be a more promising cancer treatment than type II photodynamic therapy due to its non-oxygen-dependent characteristics. In this work, three D–A structure N,N′-dihydrophenazine (DHP)-based photosensitizers DP-CNPY, SMP-CNPY and DMP-CNPY were designed and synthesized by introducing different numbers of methyl groups in the backbone neighbor of DHP as the donor and combined with the typical strong electron acceptor 2-(pyridin-4-yl)acetonitrile. Among the three photosensitizers, SMP-CNPY with one methyl modification showed the best type I ROS (O2˙, ˙OH) generation capacity and AIE performance. By encapsulation, SMP-CNPY was fabricated into nanoparticles, and SMP-CNPY NPs exhibited lipid droplet targeting ability with near-infrared (NIR) emission. Cell experiments have proved that SMP-CNPY NPs can effectively kill different kinds of cancer cells under normal oxygen conditions. Even under hypoxic and extreme hypoxic conditions, SMP-CNPY NPs can still produce ROS and kill cancer cells. This work holds significant potential in the field of type I AIE-active photosensitizers and provides a new strategy for overcoming the hypoxic dilemma in the malignant tumor microenvironment.

Graphical abstract: Regulating donor configuration to develop AIE-active type I photosensitizers for lipid droplet imaging and high-performance photodynamic therapy under hypoxia

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Jan 2024
Accepted
20 May 2024
First published
22 May 2024

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2024,12, 6384-6393

Regulating donor configuration to develop AIE-active type I photosensitizers for lipid droplet imaging and high-performance photodynamic therapy under hypoxia

J. Xu, X. Jin, X. Wu, X. Li, C. Li, S. Li, Z. Zhang and J. Hua, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2024, 12, 6384 DOI: 10.1039/D4TB00051J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements