Native fluorescence characteristics of blood plasma were studied in the visible spectral region, at two different excitation wavelengths, 405 and 420 nm, to discriminate patients with different stages of oral malignancy from healthy subjects. The fluorescence spectra of blood plasma of oral malignant subjects exhibit characteristic spectral differences with respect to normal subjects. Different ratios were calculated using the fluorescence intensity values at those emission wavelengths that give characteristic spectral features of each group of experimental subjects studied. These fluorescence intensity ratios were used as input variables for a multiple linear discriminant analysis across different groups. Leave-one out cross-validation was used to check the reliability of each discriminant analysis performed. The discriminant analysis performed across normal and oral cancerous subjects classified 94.7% of the original grouped cases and 93.7% of the cross-validated grouped cases. A classification algorithm was developed on the basis of the score of the discriminant functions (discriminant score) resulted in the analyses. The diagnostic potentiality of the present technique was also estimated in the discrimination of malignant subjects from normal and nonmalignant diseased subjects such as liver diseases. In the discriminant analysis performed across the three groups, normal, oral malignancy (including early and advanced stages) and liver diseases, 99% of the original grouped cases and 95.9% of the cross-validated grouped cases were correctly classified. Similar analysis performed across normal, early stage of oral malignancy, advanced oral malignancy and liver diseases correctly classified 94.9% of the original grouped cases and 91.8% of the cross-validated grouped cases.

A fluorescent probe HCTe was developed for rapid detection of hypochlorous acid based on the specific HOCl-promoted oxidation of diphenyl telluride. The reaction is accompanied by an 82-fold increase in the fluorescence quantum yield (from 0.009 to 0.75). The fluorescence turn-on mechanism is achieved by the suppression of photoinduced electron transfer (PET) from the diphenyl telluride group to BODIPY. The fluorescence intensity of the reaction between HOCl and HCTe is linear in the HOCl concentration range of 1 to 10 μM with a detection limit of 41.3 nM (S/N = 3). In addition, confocal fluorescence microscopy imaging using RAW264.7 macrophages demonstrated that HCTe could be an efficient fluorescent probe for HOCl detection in living cells.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising and minimally invasive method for the treatment of superficial diseases, and photosensitizers with high phototoxicity indices (defined as (IC )/(IC )) are essential for the development of ideal photosensitizing properties for this technology. Herein, we report a series of photocytotoxic copper(II) complexes [Cu( QYMP)(dppn)] ( QYMP=N,N,O-tridentate Schiff-base derivatives, dppn=benzo[i]dipyrido[3,2-a;2',3'-c]phenazine), the structures of which have been confirmed by mass spectrometry and FTIR spectroscopy. X-ray crystallography revealed that the CuN O core of the [Cu( QYMP)(dppn)](ClO ) complex (3) has a distorted square-pyramidal geometry. Phototoxicity indices of 329 against human squamous cell carcinoma (SCC15) and 296 against basal cell carcinoma (BCC) cell lines have been determined with [Cu( QYMP)(dppn)](ClO ) (4). This can be attributed to the formation of reactive oxygen species, cell apoptosis, and caspase-3 activation, indicating high potential of complex 4 as a photosensitizer candidate in PDT. Thus, copper complexes bearing suitable Schiff-base ligands with a dppn co-ligand may be considered for the design of efficient metal-based anticancer agents for PDT.