Department of Biomedical Engineering, SUSTech Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Shenzhen, 518055, China.
HKUST-Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, 518057, China.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2020 Jul 6;59(28):11298-11302. doi: 10.1002/anie.202002516. Epub 2020 May 18.
It remains highly challenging to identify small molecule-based photothermal agents with a high photothermal conversion efficiency (PTCE). Herein, we adopt a double bond-based molecular motor concept to develop a new class of small photothermal agents to break the current design bottleneck. As the double-bond is twisted by strong twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) upon irradiation, the excited agents can deactivate non-radiatively through the conical intersection (CI) of internal conversion, which is called photoinduced nonadiabatic decay. Such agents possess a high PTCE of 90.0 %, facilitating low-temperature photothermal therapy in the presence of a heat shock protein 70 inhibitor. In addition, the behavior and mechanism of NIR laser-triggered molecular motions for generating heat through the CI pathway have been further understood through theoretical and experimental evidence, providing a design principle for highly efficient photothermal and photoacoustic agents.
鉴定具有高光热转换效率（PTCE）的基于小分子的光热剂仍然极具挑战性。在此，我们采用基于双键的分子马达概念开发了一类新型的小分子光热剂，以打破当前的设计瓶颈。由于双键在照射时通过强扭曲的分子内电荷转移（TICT）扭曲，受激剂可以通过内部转换的圆锥交叉（CI）非辐射失活，这称为光诱导非绝热衰减。这些试剂具有 90.0%的高光热转换效率，在存在热休克蛋白 70 抑制剂的情况下可实现低温光热治疗。此外，通过理论和实验证据进一步了解了近红外激光触发分子运动通过 CI 途径产生热量的行为和机制，为高效光热和光声试剂提供了设计原则。
