Issue 47, 2017

Recent development of luminescent rhenium(i) tricarbonyl polypyridine complexes as cellular imaging reagents, anticancer drugs, and antibacterial agents

Abstract

There has been fast-growing interest in the exploitation of the photophysical and photochemical properties of luminescent transition metal complexes in biological applications, with a focus on both diagnostic and therapeutic aspects. In particular, the design of luminescent rhenium(I) tricarbonyl polypyridine complexes as cellular imaging reagents and anticancer drugs has received considerable attention for a number of reasons. First, most rhenium(I) tricarbonyl polypyridine complexes possess diverse photophysical and photochemical properties through the coordination of functionalized ligands. The typical photophysical properties of the complexes such as large Stokes shifts, long emission lifetimes, and high photostability allow them to serve as attractive candidates for optical imaging. Also, the cellular uptake of the complexes can be readily quantified by atomic absorption spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Additionally, owing to the characteristic infrared absorption bands and the isostructural relationship between rhenium and technetium-99m, rhenium(I) tricarbonyl complexes have been exploited as multimodal imaging reagents for vibrational and radio-imaging, respectively. Furthermore, the facile photosensitizing properties and the three carbon monoxide (CO) ligands render rhenium(I) tricarbonyl complexes promising candidates as photodynamic therapy reagents and photoactivatable CO-releasing molecules, respectively, for cancer treatment. In this Perspective, we describe the recent development of luminescent rhenium(I) tricarbonyl polypyridine complexes as cellular imaging reagents, anticancer drugs, and antibacterial agents.

Graphical abstract: Recent development of luminescent rhenium(i) tricarbonyl polypyridine complexes as cellular imaging reagents, anticancer drugs, and antibacterial agents

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
15 9月 2017
Accepted
18 10月 2017
First published
18 10月 2017

Dalton Trans., 2017,46, 16357-16380

Recent development of luminescent rhenium(I) tricarbonyl polypyridine complexes as cellular imaging reagents, anticancer drugs, and antibacterial agents

L. C. Lee, K. Leung and K. K. Lo, Dalton Trans., 2017, 46, 16357 DOI: 10.1039/C7DT03465B

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