Photoactivated cell-killing amino-based flavylium compounds

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2021

Authors

Oliveira, H (Author) FCUP; Araujo, P (Author) Other; Victor de Freitas (Author) FCUP; Nuno Mateus (Author) FCUP; de Freitas, V (Author) Other; Joana Oliveira (Author) FCUP; Iva Fernandes (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Scientific Reports

Vol. 11

ISSN: 2045-2322

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 5 Citations

Scopus - 3 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00V-NX3

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-01485-y

Abstract (EN): Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a well-established therapeutic for the treatment of different diseases. The growing interest of this technique required the development of new photosensitizers with better photo-features. This work reports the study of the potential of five nature-inspired amino-based flavylium compounds with different structural features as photosensitizers towards topical PDT. In terms of dark cytotoxicity the five pigments were tested towards confluent skin cells in both fibroblasts and keratinocytes. In the range of concentrations tested (6.3-100 mu M), keratinocytes were more prone to growth inhibition and the IC50 values for 5OH4 ' NMe2, 7NEt(2)st4 ' NMe2 and 7NEt(2)4 ' NH2 were determined to be 47.3 +/- 0.3 mu M; 91.0 +/- 0.8 mu M and 29.8 +/- 0.8 mu M, respectively. 7NEt(2)4 ' NMe2, 7NEt(2)st4 ' NMe2 and 7NEt(2)4 ' NH2 showed significant fluorescence quantum yields (from 3.40 to 20.20%) and production of singlet oxygen (O-1(2)). These latter chromophores presented IC50 values of growth inhibition of keratinocytes between 0.9 and 1.5 mu M, after 10 min of photoactivation with white light. This cellular damage in keratinocyte cells upon white light activation was accompanied with the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). It was also found that the compounds can induce damage by either type I (ROS production) or type II (singlet oxygen) PDT mechanism, although a higher cell survival was observed in the presence of O-1(2) quenchers. Overall, a structure-activity relationship could be established, ranking the most important functional groups for the photoactivation efficiency as follows: C7-diethylamino > C4 '-dimethylamino > C2-styryl.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 16