Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
Sci Rep. 2019 Oct 25;9(1):15288. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-51593-z.
Light-activated theranostics offer promising opportunities for disease diagnosis, image-guided surgery, and site-specific personalized therapy. However, current fluorescent dyes are limited by low brightness, high cytotoxicity, poor tissue penetration, and unwanted side effects. To overcome these limitations, we demonstrate a platform for optoelectronic tuning, which allows independent control of the optical properties from the electronic properties of fluorescent organic salts. This is achieved through cation-anion pairing of organic salts that can modulate the frontier molecular orbital without impacting the bandgap. Optoelectronic tuning enables decoupled control over the cytotoxicity and phototoxicity of fluorescent organic salts by selective generation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species that control cell viability. We show that through counterion pairing, organic salt nanoparticles can be tuned to be either nontoxic for enhanced imaging, or phototoxic for improved photodynamic therapy.
光激活治疗学为疾病诊断、图像引导手术和特定部位的个性化治疗提供了有前途的机会。然而，目前的荧光染料受到低亮度、高细胞毒性、差的组织穿透性和不良副作用的限制。为了克服这些限制，我们展示了一种光电调谐平台，该平台允许独立控制荧光盐的光学性质和电子性质。这是通过盐的阴阳离子配对实现的，这种配对可以调节前沿分子轨道而不影响带隙。光电调谐通过选择性地产生控制细胞活力的线粒体活性氧来实现对荧光盐的细胞毒性和光毒性的解耦控制。我们表明，通过抗衡离子配对，可以将盐纳米颗粒调谐为非毒性以增强成像，或者调谐为光毒性以改善光动力治疗。
