Improved Photophysical Properties of Ionic Material-Based Combination Chemo/PDT Nanomedicine

Abstract

Herein, a cost-effective and prompt approach to develop ionic material-based combination nanodrugs for cancer therapy is presented. A chemotherapeutic (phosphonium) cation and photodynamic therapeutic (porphyrin) anion are combined using a single step ion exchange reaction. Afterward, a nanomedicine is prepared from this ionic materials-based combination drug using a simplistic strategy of reprecipitation. Improved photophysical characteristics such as a slower nonradiative rate constant, an enhanced phosphorescence emission, a longer lifetime, and a bathochromic shift in absorbance spectra of porphyrin are observed in the presence of a chemotherapeutic countercation. The photodynamic therapeutic activity of nanomedicines is investigated by measuring the singlet oxygen quantum yield using two probes. As compared to the parent porphyrin compound, the synthesized combination material showed a 2-fold increase in the reactive oxygen species quantum yield, due to inhibition of face-toface aggregation of porphyrin units in the presence of bulky chemotherapeutic ions. The dark cytotoxicity of combination therapy nanomedicines in the MCF-7 (cancerous breast) cell line is also increased as compared to their corresponding parent compounds in vitro. This is due to the high cellular uptake of the combination nanomedicines as compared to that of the free drug. Further, selective toxicity toward cancer cells was acquired by functionalizing nanomedicine with folic acid followed by incubation with MCF-7 and MCF-10A (noncancerous breast). Light toxicity experiments indicate that the synthesized ionic nanomedicine shows a greater cell death than either parent drug due to the improved photophysical properties and effective combination effect. This facile and economical strategy can easily be utilized in the future to develop many other combination ionic nanomedicines with improved photodynamics.

Enhanced photothermal heating and combination therapy of NIR dye via conversion to self-assembled ionic nanomaterials

“…[P 66614 ]Cl is known to induce cytotoxic effect towards cancerous cells. 29 This study can answer if the replacement of small chloride ion of the chemotherapy molecule, [P 66614 ]Cl with NIR dye alters its chemotherapeutic effect. Since the parent [P 66614 ]Cl chemotherapy molecule is used in the liquid form while the hydrophobic chemo-PTT molecules are used as NPs in the cell media, the dark cytotoxicity of the drug should be affected.…”

“…Previous reports have shown that INMs can show enhanced toxicity compared to their parent drugs. 28,29,46 Therefore, cellular dark toxicity of the parent PTAs and chemo-PTT INMs was analyzed in two different cell lines (cancerous breast from mouse and human) to inspect potential selectivity of the combination INMs in regard to species. Two cell lines are used since the phosphonium based chemotherapeutic cation is known to exhibit different toxicity in various cell lines.…”

“…ILs are a class of materials that have gained much interest of researchers over the last few decades due to their unique properties which are attractive for many different applications. 26–29 Some of these properties include high thermal stability and photostability as well as an incredible ease of tunability. 30,31 A subset of this class includes frozen ionic salts, or ionic materials (IMs).…”

Water-Soluble Truncated Fatty Acid–Porphyrin Conjugates Provide Photo-Sensitizer Activity for Photodynamic Therapy in Malignant Mesothelioma

“…Once dissolved in an aqueous solution, the absorption spectra of the porphyrins C5SHU, C6SHU, and C7SHU in water was compared to that of the solvated porphyrin recorded in polar organic solvent DMSO and the porphyrin forced to stack in 1 M HCl ( Figure 1 ). The spectra of C5SHU in water has a sharp Soret band like that of the solvated C5SHU in recorded DMSO, the spectra of C6SHU and C7SHU in water have Soret bands that are broader than those recorded in DMSO spectra but not as the broad Soret bands seen in the stacked porphyrins [ 37 , 38 , 39 ].…”

Advances of ionic liquid-based nanohybrids for biomedical applications

“…13). 168 This chemotherapeutic and photodynamic therapeutic (chemo-PDT) IMs was a hydrophobic compound, which would easily be converted to INMs in aqueous/buffer solution via reprecipitation. 169,170 [P 66614 ][IR783] INMs showed better photothermal conversion efficiency than the parent dye.…”