Water-soluble fullerene materials for bioapplications: photoinduced reactive oxygen species generation

Abstract

The photoinduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation from several water-soluble fullerenes was examined. Macromolecular or small molecular water-soluble fullerene complexes/derivatives were prepared and their ¹O₂ and O₂˙⁻ generation abilities were evaluated by ESR spin-trapping methods. As a result, efficient ¹O₂ generation was detected from photoexcited C₆₀, not only in organic solvents, but also in aqueous media and especially from small molecule C₆₀–carboxylic acid derivatives. Whereas efficient O₂˙⁻ generation was observed in the aqueous solution of the C₆₀/γ-CD complex under photoirradiation.