Issue 33, 2022

Halogen-bridged binuclear iridium(iii) complexes with enhanced photodynamic therapeutic effects in mitochondria

Abstract

The development of high-performance photosensitizers is the top priority in photodynamic therapy (PDT). Iridium complexes are widely used because of their many advantages such as high photostability, long T1 lifetime, high yield of singlet oxygen generation, and so on. Halogen-bridged binuclear complexes are often used as intermediates in the synthesis of photosensitizers but ignored in PDT applications. Here we found that halogen-bridged binuclear iridium complexes showed excellent performance in 1O2 generation. It was also confirmed that these complexes kill tumor cells by inducing apoptosis. Through molecular design and modification, we studied the effect of the bridging halogen atoms and intracellular localization on the performance of PDT. The results show that replacing the bridging halogen with heavier atoms and targeting the complex in mitochondria can effectively enhance the efficiency of PDT. Among them, the bromine bridged binuclear iridium complex located in mitochondria reported in this paper can achieve an IC50 value of 75 nM for MCF-7 cells. This work also provides inspiration for the exploration of complex-based photosensitizers.

Graphical abstract: Halogen-bridged binuclear iridium(iii) complexes with enhanced photodynamic therapeutic effects in mitochondria

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
21 May 2022
Accepted
21 Jul 2022
First published
02 Aug 2022

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2022,10, 6307-6314

Halogen-bridged binuclear iridium(III) complexes with enhanced photodynamic therapeutic effects in mitochondria

J. Lyu, D. Liu, C. Wang, Z. Zhang and X. Zhang, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2022, 10, 6307 DOI: 10.1039/D2TB01078J

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