Modulation of proteins by rare earth elements as a biotechnological tool

Although rare earth element (REE) complexes are often utilized in bioimaging due to their photo- and redox stability, magnetic and optical characteristics, they are also applied for pharmaceutical applications due to their interaction with macromolecules namely proteins. The possible implications induced by REEs through modification in the function or regulatory activity of the proteins trigger a variety of applications for these elements in biomedicine and biotechnology. Lanthanide complexes have particularly been applied as anti-biofilm agents, cancer inhibitors, potential inflammation inhibitors, metabolic elicitors, and helper agents in the cultivation of unculturable strains, drug delivery, tissue engineering, photodynamic, and radiation therapy. This paper overviews emerging applications of REEs in biotechnology, especially in biomedical imaging, tumor diagnosis, and treatment along with their potential toxic effects. Although significant advances in applying REEs have been made, there is a lack of comprehensive studies to identify the potential of all REEs in biotechnology since only four elements, Eu, Ce, Gd, and La, among 17 REEs have been mostly investigated. However, in depth research on ecotoxicology, environmental behavior, and biological functions of REEs in the health and disease status of living organisms is required to fill the vital gaps in our understanding of REEs applications.

Luminescent lanthanide-based molecular materials: applications in photodynamic therapy

Luminescent lanthanide molecular compounds have recently attracted attention as potential photosensitizers (PSs) for photodynamic therapy (PDT) against malignant cancer tumours because of their predictable systemic toxicity, temporospatial specificity, and minimal invasiveness. A photosensitizer exhibits no toxicity by itself, but in the presence of light and oxygen molecules, it can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) to cause damage to proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, membranes, and organelles, which can induce cell apoptosis. This review focuses on the latest developments in luminescent lanthanide-based molecular materials as photosensitizers and their applications in photodynamic therapy. These molecular materials include lanthanide coordination complexes, nanoscale lanthanide coordination polymers, and lanthanide-based nanoscale metal-organic frameworks. In the end, the future challenges in the development of robust luminescent lanthanide molecular materials-based photosensitisers are outlined and emphasized to inspire the design of a new generation of phototheranostic agents.

Luminescent Lanthanide Complexes for Effective Oxygen-Sensing and Singlet Oxygen Generation

Oxygen quantification using luminescence has attracted considerable attention in various fields, including environmental monitoring and clinical analysis. Among the reported luminophores, trivalent lanthanide complexes have displayed characteristic narrow emission bands with high brightness. This bright emission is based on photo-sensitized energy transfer via organic triplet states. The organic triplet states in lanthanide complexes effectively react with the triplet oxygen, enabling oxygen quantification by lanthanide luminescence. Some Tb^III and Eu^III complexes with slow deactivation processes have also formed the excited state equilibrium, thus resulting in the emission-lifetime based oxygen sensing property. The combination of Tb^III /Eu^III emission, Eu^III /Sm^III emission, Eu^III /ligand phosphorescence, and ligand fluorescence/ligand phosphorescence provide the ratiometric oxygen-sensing properties. Moreover, the reaction generates singlet oxygen species which exhibit numerous applications in the photo-medical field. The ligands with large π-conjugated aromatic systems, such as porphyrin, phthalocyanine, and polyaromatic compounds, induces highly efficient oxygen generation. The combination of effective luminescence with singlet-oxygen generation by the lanthanide complexes render them suitable for photo-driven theranostics. This review summarizes the research progress of lanthanide complexes with efficient oxygen-sensing and singlet-oxygen generation properties.

Lanthanide porphyrinoids as molecular theranostics

In recent years, lanthanide (Ln) porphyrinoids have received increasing attention as theranostics. Broadly speaking, the term 'theranostics' refers to agents designed to allow both disease diagnosis and therapeutic intervention. This Review summarises the history and the 'state-of-the-art' development of Ln porphyrinoids as theranostic agents. The emphasis is on the progress made within the past decade. Applications of Ln porphyrinoids in near-infrared (NIR, 650-1700 nm) fluorescence imaging (FL), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), radiotherapy, and chemotherapy will be discussed. The use of Ln porphyrinoids as photo-activated agents ('phototheranostics') will also be highlighted in the context of three promising strategies for regulation of porphyrinic triplet energy dissipation pathways, namely: regioisomeric effects, metal regulation, and the use of expanded porphyrinoids. The goal of this Review is to showcase some of the ongoing efforts being made to optimise Ln porphyrinoids as theranostics and as phototheranostics, in order to provide a platform for understanding likely future developments in the area, including those associated with structure-based innovations, functional improvements, and emerging biological activation strategies.

Lanthanide-tetrapyrrole complexes: synthesis, redox chemistry, photophysical properties, and photonic applications

Tetrapyrrole derivatives such as porphyrins, phthalocyanines, naphthalocyanines, and porpholactones, are highly stable macrocyclic compounds that play important roles in many phenomena linked to the development of life. Their complexes with lanthanides are known for more than 60 years and present breath-taking properties such as a range of easily accessible redox states leading to photo- and electro-chromism, paramagnetism, large non-linear optical parameters, and remarkable light emission in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) ranges. They are at the centre of many applications with an increasing focus on their ability to generate singlet oxygen for photodynamic therapy coupled with bioimaging and biosensing properties. This review first describes the synthetic paths leading to lanthanide-tetrapyrrole complexes together with their structures. The initial synthetic protocols were plagued by low yields and long reaction times; they have now been replaced with much more efficient and faster routes, thanks to the stunning advances in synthetic organic chemistry, so that quite complex multinuclear edifices are presently routinely obtained. Aspects such as redox properties, sensitization of NIR-emitting lanthanide ions, and non-linear optical properties are then presented. The spectacular improvements in the quantum yield and brightness of Yb^III-containing tetrapyrrole complexes achieved in the past five years are representative of the vitality of the field and open welcome opportunities for the bio-applications described in the last section. Perspectives for the field are vast and exciting as new derivatizations of the macrocycles may lead to sensitization of other Ln^III NIR-emitting ions with luminescence in the NIR-II and NIR-III biological windows, while conjugation with peptides and aptamers opens the way for lanthanide-tetrapyrrole theranostics.

Antiparallel Coupling between a 4f System and a Photoexcited Cyclic π System in a Dysprosium(III) Monoporphyrinato Complex

Magnetic coupling resulted by an orbital angular momentum L of a photoexcited cyclic π-conjugated system and total angular momentum J of a localized 4f electronic system in [Dy(TPP)(cyclen)]Cl (TPP = 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrinato; cyclen = 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane) has been identified using magnetic circular dichroism (MCD). The MCD A-term patterns of the compound show a negative increment in the intensity by decreasing temperature and nonproportionality to the magnetic field. This phenomenon is experimentally observed for the first time in porphyrin-based lanthanide complexes and indicates the presence of the J-L interaction, with the preferred orientation being antiparallel. A theoretical model in which J and L are assumed to couple antiferromagnetically yielded a quantitative agreement to the experimental data of varied-temperature and varied-magnetic-field MCD spectral measurements. The ab initio calculations were performed, revealing the relationship between two orbital angular momenta, i.e., L(π) and L(f), which result from the delocalized π system and the localized 4f system, respectively.

Mitochondria-Specific Agents for Photodynamic Cancer Therapy: A Key Determinant to Boost the Efficacy

Mitochondria-targeted photodynamic therapy (Mt-PDT), which enables the photogenerated cytotoxic oxygen species with fatal oxidative damage to block mitochondrial functions, has been considered as a promising method to enhance the anticancer effectiveness. Aiming at the challenges of PDT, in the past few decades, numerous mitochondria-targeting molecular agents have been developed to boost the PDT efficacy via directly destroying the mitochondria or activating mitochondria-mediated cell death pathways. Herein, a review for recent advances of Mt-PDT is highlighted including: mitochondrial targeting design principles and strategies, therapeutic performance of mitochondria-targeted agents-mediated PDT as well as the agent-free Mt-PDT. In addition, it puts together the achievements of the combinatory mitochondria-anchoring PDT and other anticancer strategies, demonstrating the advantages provided by Mt-PDT. The existing challenges are discussed and future settlements for the development of mitochondria-specific agents are also forecasted.

Spectroscopic Investigation of Interaction between the 4f Electronic System and the Photoexcited Cyclic π System in Terbium(III) Monoporphyrinato Complex

Electronic interaction between the total angular momentum (J) of the 4f electronic system and an angular momentum (L) of the photoexcited cyclic π system in a terbium(III) monoporphyrinato complex with a capping ligand cyclen, [Tb(TPP)(cyclen)]Cl (TPP = 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrinato; cyclen = 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane), have been investigated by varied-temperature and varied-magnetic-field magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopy. Three MCD A-term patterns which correspond to B(0,0), Q(0,0), and Q(1,0) absorption bands were observed for the complex which was incorporated into a thin film of poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, as well as that in solution phase. The A-term patterns in the Soret band region and Q-band region were found to show opposite behavior with changes in temperature and magnetic field. This finding clearly indicated not only the presence of the J-L interaction but also the different directions of the J-L interaction; i.e., J and L interact ferromagnetically in the Q(0,0) and Q(1,0) states, while antiferromagnetically in the B(0,0) state. The magnitude of the interaction was determined by simulation-based fitting to experimental A1/D0 ratios, where A1 refers to the A-term intensity and D0 to the oscillator strength of the band. The first ab initio study was also carried out for further insight into the interaction. From the computational study, the relationship between the orbital angular momentum of π electronic system, L(π), and the orbital angular momentum of the 4f system, L(f), was clearly revealed. A computational approach to determine the magnitude and the direction of J-L interaction was established.

Metal-Organic Framework (MOF)-Based Drug/Cargo Delivery and Cancer Therapy

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)-an emerging class of hybrid porous materials built from metal ions or clusters bridged by organic linkers-have attracted increasing attention in recent years. The superior properties of MOFs, such as well-defined pore aperture, tailorable composition and structure, tunable size, versatile functionality, high agent loading, and improved biocompatibility, make them promising candidates as drug delivery hosts. Furthermore, scientists have made remarkable achievements in the field of nanomedical applications of MOFs, owing to their facile synthesis on the nanoscale and alternative functionalization via inclusion and surface chemistry. A brief introduction to the applications of MOFs in controlled drug/cargo delivery and cancer therapy that have been reported in recent years is provided here.

αvβ3-Isoform specific erbium complexes highly specific for bladder cancer imaging and photodynamic therapy

We have synthesized a bifunctional erbium–porphyrin tumor imaging and PDT agent (Er–R3) that is capable of killing bladder cancer cellsviaits selective binding to the integrin α_vβ₃isoform overexpressed on the cell membrane.

Multifunctional UCNPs@MnSiO3@g-C3N4 nanoplatform: improved ROS generation and reduced glutathione levels for highly efficient photodynamic therapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a novel technique that has been extensively employed in cancer treatment; it utilizes reactive oxygen species to kill malignant cells.

Lanthanides: Applications in Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

Lanthanide complexes are of increasing importance in cancer diagnosis and therapy, owing to the versatile chemical and magnetic properties of the lanthanide-ion 4f electronic configuration. Following the first implementation of gadolinium(III)-based contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging in the 1980s, lanthanide-based small molecules and nanomaterials have been investigated as cytotoxic agents and inhibitors, in photodynamic therapy, radiation therapy, drug/gene delivery, biosensing, and bioimaging. As the potential utility of lanthanides in these areas continues to increase, this timely review of current applications will be useful to medicinal chemists and other investigators interested in the latest developments and trends in this emerging field.

Au25 cluster functionalized metal-organic nanostructures for magnetically targeted photodynamic/photothermal therapy triggered by single wavelength 808 nm near-infrared light

Near-infrared (NIR) light-induced cancer therapy has gained considerable interest, but pure inorganic anti-cancer platforms usually suffer from degradation issues. Here, we designed metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) of Fe3O4/ZIF-8-Au25 (IZA) nanospheres through a green and economic procedure. The encapsulated Fe3O4 nanocrystals not only produce hyperthemal effects upon NIR light irradiation to effectively kill tumor cells, but also present targeting and MRI imaging capability. More importantly, the attached ultrasmall Au25(SR)18(-) clusters (about 2.5 nm) produce highly reactive singlet oxygen ((1)O2) to cause photodynamic effects through direct sensitization under NIR light irradiation. Furthermore, the Au25(SR)18(-) clusters also give a hand to the hyperthemal effect as photothermal fortifiers. This nanoplatform exhibits high biocompatibility and an enhanced synergistic therapeutic effect superior to any single therapy, as verified by in vitro and in vivo assay. This image-guided therapy based on a metal-organic framework may stimulate interest in developing other kinds of metal-organic materials with multifunctionality for tumor diagnosis and therapy.

In vivo selective cancer-tracking gadolinium eradicator as new-generation photodynamic therapy agent

In this work, we demonstrate a modality of photodynamic therapy (PDT) through the design of our truly dual-functional--PDT and imaging--gadolinium complex (Gd-N), which can target cancer cells specifically. In the light of our design, the PDT drug can specifically localize on the anionic cell membrane of cancer cells in which its laser-excited photoemission signal can be monitored without triggering the phototoxic generation of reactive oxygen species--singlet oxygen--before due excitation. Comprehensive in vitro and in vivo studies had been conducted for the substantiation of the effectiveness of Gd-N as such a tumor-selective PDT photosensitizer. This treatment modality does initiate a new direction in the development of "precision medicine" in line with stem cell and gene therapies as tools in cancer therapy.

Efficient synthesis of new asymmetric tripodal ligands using microwave irradiation, and their crystal structures

An efficient method for synthesis of asymmetric tripodal ligands was described by using microwave irradiation.