Water-Soluble Self-Assembled Butadiyne-Bridged Bisporphyrin: A Potential Two-Photon-Absorbing Photosensitizer for Photodynamic Therapy

Prospects for More Efficient Multi-Photon Absorption Photosensitizers Exhibiting Both Reactive Oxygen Species Generation and Luminescence

The use of two-photon absorption (TPA) for such applications as microscopy, imaging, and photodynamic therapy (PDT) offers several advantages over the usual one-photon excitation. This creates a need for photosensitizers that exhibit both strong two-photon absorption and the highly efficient generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), as well as, ideally, bright luminescence. This review focuses on different strategies utilized to improve the TPA properties of various multi-photon absorbing species that have the required photophysical properties. Along with well-known families of photosensitizers, including porphyrins, we also describe other promising organic and organometallic structures and more complex systems involving organic and inorganic nanoparticles. We concentrate on the published studies that provide two-photon absorption cross-section values and the singlet oxygen (or other ROS) and luminescence quantum yields, which are crucial for potential use within PDT and diagnostics. We hope that this review will aid in the design and modification of novel TPA photosensitizers, which can help in exploiting the features of nonlinear absorption processes.

Highly Charged Ruthenium(II) Polypyridyl Complexes as Effective Photosensitizer in Photodynamic Therapy

A comparative study between two novel, highly water soluble, ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes, [Ru(phen)₂ L'] and [Ru(phen)₂ Cu(II)L'] (L and L-Cu^II ), containing the polyaazamacrocyclic unit 4,4'-(2,5,8,11,14-pentaaza[15])-2,2'-bipyridilophane (L'), is herein reported. L and L-Cu^II interact with calf-thymus DNA and efficiently cleave DNA plasmid when light-activated. They also possess great penetration abilities and photo-induced biological activities, evaluated on an A375 human melanoma cell line, with L-Cu^II being the most effective. Our study highlights the key role of the Fenton active Cu^II center within the macrocycle framework, that would play a synergistic role with light activation in the formation of cytotoxic ROS species. Based on these results, an optimal design of Ru^II polypyridyl systems featuring specific Cu^II -chelating polyamine units could represent a suitable strategy for the development of novel and effective photosensitizers in photodynamic therapy.

Hybrid Nanomedicine Fabricated from Photosensitizer-Terminated Metal-Organic Framework Nanoparticles for Photodynamic Therapy and Hypoxia-Activated Cascade Chemotherapy

During photodynamic therapy (PDT), severe hypoxia often occurs as an undesirable limitation of PDT owing to the O₂ -consuming photodynamic process, compromising the effectiveness of PDT. To overcome this problem, several strategies aiming to improve tumor oxygenation are developed. Unlike these traditional approaches, an opposite method combining hypoxia-activated prodrug and PDT may provide a promising strategy for cancer synergistic therapy. In light of this, azido-/photosensitizer-terminated UiO-66 nanoscale metal-organic frameworks (UiO-66-H/N₃ NMOFs) which serve as nanocarriers for the bioreductive prodrug banoxantrone (AQ4N) are engineered. Owing to the effective shielding of the nanoparticles, the stability of AQ4N is well preserved, highlighting the vital function of the nanocarriers. By virtue of strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition, the nanocarriers are further decorated with a dense PEG layer to enhance their dispersion in the physiological environment and improve their therapeutic performance. Both in vitro and in vivo studies reveal that the O₂ -depleting PDT process indeed aggravates intracellular/tumor hypoxia that activates the cytotoxicity of AQ4N through a cascade process, consequently achieving PDT-induced and hypoxia-activated synergistic therapy. Benefiting from the localized therapeutic effect of PDT and hypoxia-activated cytotoxicity of AQ4N, this hybrid nanomedicine exhibits enhanced therapeutic efficacy with negligible systemic toxicity, making it a promising candidate for cancer therapy.

Rapid Visible Light-Mediated Controlled Aqueous Polymerization with In Situ Monitoring

We report a simple procedure for rapid, visible light-mediated, controlled radical polymerization in aqueous solutions. Based on the photoelectron transfer reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (PET-RAFT) polymerization, fast chain propagation at room temperature in water was achieved in the presence of reductant and without prior deoxygenation. A systematic study correlating irradiation intensity and polymerization kinetics, enabled by in situ nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, provided optimized reaction conditions. The versatility of this procedure was demonstrated through a rapid triblock copolymer synthesis, and incorporation of water-labile activated esters for direct conjugation of hydrophilic small molecules and proteins. In addition, this technique boasts excellent temporal control and provides a wide range of macromolecular materials with controlled molecular weights and narrow molecular weight distributions.

Synthesis and Functionalization of Porphyrins through Organometallic Methodologies

This review focuses on the postfunctionalization of porphyrins and related compounds through catalytic and stoichiometric organometallic methodologies. The employment of organometallic reactions has become common in porphyrin synthesis. Palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions are now standard techniques for constructing carbon-carbon bonds in porphyrin synthesis. In addition, iridium- or palladium-catalyzed direct C-H functionalization of porphyrins is emerging as an efficient way to install various substituents onto porphyrins. Furthermore, the copper-mediated Huisgen cycloaddition reaction has become a frequent strategy to incorporate porphyrin units into functional molecules. The use of these organometallic techniques, along with the traditional porphyrin synthesis, now allows chemists to construct a wide range of highly elaborated and complex porphyrin architectures.

Thermally Driven Dynamics of a Rotaxane Wheel about an Imidazolium Axle inside a Metal-Organic Framework

A new mechanically interlocked molecular linker was prepared by using ring-closing metathesis (Grubbs I) to clip a [24]crown-6 ether wheel around an axle containing both Y-shaped diphenylimidazole and isophthalic acid groups. A metal-organic framework (MOF) material was prepared using this linker and Zn^II ions. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments showed that the MOF contains an imidazolium-based rotaxane linked by dimeric [Zn₂ (NO₃ )(DEF)] secondary building units (SBUs). Variable-temperature (VT), ² H solid-state NMR spectroscopy was used to characterize the motion of the "soft" wheel component around the rigid "hard" lattice of the framework. At higher temperatures (above 150 °C), it was demonstrated that the 24-membered, macrocyclic ring of the MOF undergoes rapid, thermally driven rotation about the axle inside the voids of the lattice.

Anionic hexadeca-carboxylate tetrapyrazinoporphyrazine: synthesis and in vitro photodynamic studies of a water-soluble, non-aggregating photosensitizer

Photodynamic activity of hexadeca-carboxylate tetrapyrazinoporphyrazine is largely influenced by intracellular pH and its interaction with serum proteins.

Water Dispersible and Biocompatible Porphyrin-Based Nanospheres for Biophotonics Applications: A Novel Surfactant and Polyelectrolyte-Based Fabrication Strategy for Modifying Hydrophobic Porphyrins

The hydrophobility of most porphyrin and porphyrin derivatives has limited their applications in medicine and biology. Herein, we developed a novel and general strategy for the design of porphyrin nanospheres with good biocompatibility and water dispersibility for biological applications using hydrophobic porphyrins. In order to display the generality of the method, we used two hydrophobic porphyrin isomers as starting material which have different structures confirmed by an X-ray technique. The porphyrin nanospheres were fabricated through two main steps. First, the uniform porphyrin nanospheres stabilized by surfactant were prepared by an interfacially driven microemulsion method, and then the layer-by-layer method was used for the synthesis of polyelectrolyte-coated porphyrin nanospheres to reduce the toxicity of the surfactant as well as improve the biocompatibility of the nanospheres. The newly fabricated porphyrin nanospheres were characterized by TEM techniques, the electronic absorption spectra, photoluminescence emission spectra, dynamic light scattering, and cytotoxicity examination. The resulting nanospheres demonstrated good biocompatibility, excellent water dispersibility and low toxicity. In order to show their application in biophotonics, these porphyrin nanospheres were successfully applied in targeted living cancer cell imaging. The results showed an effective method had been explored to prepare water dispersible and highly stable porphyrin nanomaterial for biophotonics applications using hydrophobic porphyrin. The approach we reported shows obvious flexibility because the surfactants and polyelectrolytes can be optionally selected in accordance with the characteristics of the hydrophobic material. This strategy will expand the applications of hydrophobic porphyrins owning excellent properties in medicine and biology.

Structures of the conformational isomers and polymorph modifications of N-substituted 2,6-(E,E)-bis(ferrocenylidene)piperid-4-ones: photo- and electrochemically induced E/Z isomerization

Polymorph modifications for title compounds were investigated.

Photophysics of glycosylated derivatives of a chlorin, isobacteriochlorin and bacteriochlorin for photodynamic theragnostics: discovery of a two-photon-absorbing photosensitizer

The photophysical properties of a chlorin, isobacteriochlorin and bacteriochlorin built on a core tetrapentafluorophenylporphyrin (TPPF20 ) and the nonhydrolyzable para thioglycosylated conjugates of these chromophores are presented. The photophysical characterization of these compounds was done in three different solvents to correlate with different environments in cells and tissues. Compared with TPPF20 other dyes have greater absorption in the red region of the visible spectrum and greater fluorescence quantum yields. The excited state lifetimes are from 3 to 11 ns. The radiative and nonradiative rate constants for deactivation of the excited state were estimated from the fluorescence quantum yield and excited state lifetime. The data indicate that the bacteriochlorin has strong absorption bands near 730 nm and efficiently enters the triplet manifold. The isobacteriochlorin has a 40-70% fluorescence quantum yield depending on solvent, so it may be a good fluorescent tag. The isobacteriochlorins also display enhanced two-photon absorption, thereby allowing the use of 860 nm light to excite the compound. While the two-photon cross section of 25 GM units is not large, excitation of low chromophore concentrations can induce apoptosis. The glycosylated compounds accumulate in cancer cells and a head and neck squamous carcinoma xenograft tumor model in mice. These compounds are robust to photobleaching.

Large excited state two photon absorptions in the near infrared region of surprisingly stable radical cations of (ferrocenyl)indenes

Multiphoton absorptions are important non-linear optical processes which allow us to explore excited states with low energy photons giving rise to new possibilities for photoinduced processes. Among these processes, multiphoton absorptions from excited states are particularly interesting because of the large susceptibilities characteristic of excited states. Here we explore the nonlinear transmission measurements recorded with 9 ns laser pulses at 1064 nm of the radical cations of (2-ferrocenyl)indene and of (2-ferrocenyl)-hexamethylindene, two interesting very stable molecules. The non-linear transmission data can be interpreted with a multiphoton sequence of three photon absorptions, the first being a one photon absorption related to the intramolecular charge transfer and the second a two photon absorption from the excited state created with the first process. The two photon absorption cross section is found to be several orders of magnitude larger than those usually found for two photon absorbing systems excited from the ground state.

Enhanced photodynamic efficiency of an aptamer-guided fullerene photosensitizer toward tumor cells

Fullerene-based photosensitizers exhibit great potential in photodynamic therapy (PDT). Based on the high photodynamic efficacy of trimalonic acid-modified C70 fullerene (TF70), we constructed an aptamer-guided TF70 photosensitizer and investigated its photodynamic effect. Conjugation of the novel aptamer (named R13) could effectively enhance the PDT efficiency of TF70 against A549 lung cancer cells in the presence of serum. The lysosomal location of the TF70-R13 conjugate inside cells facilitates the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can efficiently kill cells, under light irradiation. The enhanced photodynamic efficiency, along with its good biocompatibility in the dark, makes TF70-R13 a highly promising photosensitizer for tumor-specific PDT.

Two-photon photodynamic therapy by water-soluble self-assembled conjugated porphyrins

Studies on two-photon absorption (2PA) photodynamic therapy (PDT) by using three water-soluble porphyrin self-assemblies consisting of ethynylene-linked conjugated bis (imidazolylporphyrin) are reviewed. 2PA cross-section values in water were obtained by an open aperture Z-scan measurement, and values were extremely large compared with those of monomeric porphyrins such as hematoporphyrin. These compounds were found to generate singlet oxygen efficiently upon one- as well as two-photon absorption as demonstrated by the time-resolved luminescence measurement at the characteristic band of singlet oxygen at 1270 nm and by using its scavenger. Photocytotoxicities for HeLa cancer cells were examined and found to be as high as those of hematoporphyrin, demonstrating that these compounds are potential candidates for 2PA-photodynamic therapy agents.

Synthesis and self-organization of fluorene-conjugated bisimidazolylporphyrin and its optical properties

A conjugated-bisimidazolylporphyrin bridged by bis(ethynylfluorene) was synthesized and organized into linear polymer through self-coordination having mean molecular weights, M_w and M_n, of ~2.1 × 10⁵ Da and ~1.6 × 10⁵ Da, respectively. A large two-photon absorption cross section value of 3.4 × 10⁵ GM (per dimer unit) was observed. This value was comparable to that of the previously reported self-assembled linear polymer consisting of butadiyne-bridged imidazolylporphyrins. The two-photon absorption properties could be controlled by tuning the wavelength and absorption intensity of the one-photon absorption.

Bisporphyrin connected by tetrathiafulvalene

A new porphyrintetrathiafulvalene composite, where two porphyrins are bridged by te trathiafulvalene (TTF) using acetylene bonds was synthesized. The Q-band of the monomeric porphyrin appears at 590 nm whereas that of the composite is red-shifted to 620 nm and intensified. The Soret band is also red-shifted from 427 nm to 435 nm and much broadened, indicating the expansion of π-conjugation over the porphyrin and tetrathiafulvalene units. The HOMOs and LUMOs were calculated using time-dependent density functional theory. Voltammetric experiments revealed that the first oxidation potential of the TTF moiety in the composite was shifted by +155 mV compa red with TTF in the absence of composite. The effective two-photon absorption (2PA) cross section values were measured by using a nanosecond open aperture Z-scan method. The maximum effective 2PA cross section values were obtained at 760 nm, as 7300 GM in benzonitrile and 5900 GM in toluene. The values obtained in the polar solvent were 1.2 to 1.5 times larger than those in the nonpolar solvent.

Syntheses and nonlinear absorption properties of conjugated porphyrin supramolecules

Self-assemblies consisting of acetylene-linked bisporphyrins with a 4-nitrophenylethynyl substituent and with a phenylethynyl substituent were synthesized. The Q-band of the phenylethynyl-substituted compound appears at 762 nm whereas that of the 4-nitrophenylethynyl-substituted one was red-shifted to 784 nm and intensified. This may be attributed to the participation of the nitro group in the π-electronic communication system. HOMOs and LUMOs were calculated for these compounds using an INDO/S-CI method. The effective two-photon absorption cross-section values of these self-assemblies were measured by using a nanosecond open aperture Z-scan method. The maximum effective two-photon absorption cross-section values of 4-nitrophenylethynyl- and phenylethynyl-substituted bisporphyrins were obtained as 1.2 × 105 GM and 8.1 × 104 GM , respectively, at 890 nm. A 1.5 enhancement factor was obtained by introducing nitro groups, which was similar to the value previously reported for ferrocene- and fullerene-connected supramolecular porphyrin.

Syntheses and properties of acetylene-linked bis- and trisporphyrins toward two-photon photodynamic therapy

Acetylene-bridged bisporphyrins and trisporphyrins having branched bulky bis(carboxylethyl)methyl meso-substituents were synthesized. These compounds showed large effective two-photon absorption cross-section values at 890 nm measured by using a nanosecond Z-scan method. Sodium salt of hydrolyzed trisporphyrins showed broad and red-shifted Q-bands over 900 nm. Two-photon absorption cross-section values of water-soluble dimers in water were similar to, or slightly larger than, those of ester forms evaluated in toluene. Furthermore, the generation of singlet oxygen upon one-photon irradiation for dimers in water was confirmed.