Abstract
The use of photodynamic therapy (PDT) against cancer has received increasing attention over recent years. However, the application of the currently approved photosensitizers (PSs) is limited by their poor aqueous solubility, aggregation, photobleaching and slow clearance from the body. To overcome these limitations, there is a need for the development of new classes of PSs with ruthenium(II) polypyridine complexes currently gaining momentum. However, these compounds generally lack significant absorption in the biological spectral window, limiting their application to treat deep-seated or large tumors. To overcome this drawback, ruthenium(II) polypyridine complexes designed in silico with (E,E′)-4,4′-bisstyryl-2,2′-bipyridine ligands show impressive 1- and 2-Photon absorption up to a magnitude higher than the ones published so far. While nontoxic in the dark, these compounds are phototoxic in various 2D monolayer cells, 3D multicellular tumor spheroids and are able to eradicate a multiresistant tumor inside a mouse model upon clinically relevant 1-Photon and 2-Photon excitation.
Highlights
The use of photodynamic therapy (PDT) against cancer has received increasing attention over recent years
There is a need for the development of PSs with an absorption towards the biological spectral window (600–900 nm), which can be achieved by a red-shifted one-photon (1P) absorption or the use of a two-photon (2P) absorption process for 2P PDT, a technique that is not employed yet in the clinic
We report the design of Ru (II) polypyridine complexes with a red-shifted 1P and exceptionally strong 2P absorption using an in silico optimization
Summary
The use of photodynamic therapy (PDT) against cancer has received increasing attention over recent years. The study of the effect of the irradiation on the molecular structure of 2 by NMR spectroscopy suggests the decomposition of the compound (Supplementary Fig. 61).
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