Issue 32, 2023

Engineering of a GSH activatable photosensitizer for enhanced photodynamic therapy through disrupting redox homeostasis

Abstract

Although disrupted redox homeostasis has emerged as a promising approach for tumor therapy, most existing photosensitizers are not able to simultaneously improve the reactive oxygen species level and reduce the glutathione (GSH) level. Therefore, designing photosensitizers that can achieve these two aspects of this goal is still urgent and challenging. In this work, an organic activatable near-infrared (NIR) photosensitizer, CyI-S-diCF3, is developed for GSH depletion-assisted enhanced photodynamic therapy. CyI-S-diCF3, composed of an iodinated heptamethine cyanine skeleton linked with a recognition unit of 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)benzenethiol, can specifically react with GSH by nucleophilic substitution, resulting in intracellular GSH depletion and redox imbalance. Moreover, the activated photosensitizer can produce abundant singlet oxygen (1O2) under NIR light irradiation, further heightening the cellular oxidative stress. By this unique nature, CyI-S-diCF3 exhibits excellent toxicity to cancer cells, followed by inducing earlier apoptosis. Thus, our study may propose a new strategy to design an activatable photosensitizer for breaking the redox homeostasis in tumor cells.

Graphical abstract: Engineering of a GSH activatable photosensitizer for enhanced photodynamic therapy through disrupting redox homeostasis

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 6 2023
Accepted
19 7 2023
First published
25 7 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2023,13, 22367-22374

Engineering of a GSH activatable photosensitizer for enhanced photodynamic therapy through disrupting redox homeostasis

D. Fu, Y. Wang, K. Lin, L. Huang, J. Xu and H. Wu, RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 22367 DOI: 10.1039/D3RA04074G

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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