Recent Approaches towards the Development of Ru(II) Polypyridyl Complexes for Anticancer Photodynamic Therapy

Authors

  • Albert Gandosio Chimie ParisTech, PSL University, CNRS, Institute of Chemistry for Life and Health Sciences, Laboratory for Inorganic Chemical Biology, F-75005 Paris
  • Kallol Purkait Chimie ParisTech, PSL University, CNRS, Institute of Chemistry for Life and Health Sciences, Laboratory for Inorganic Chemical Biology, F-75005 Paris
  • Gilles Gasser Chimie ParisTech, PSL University, CNRS, Institute of Chemistry for Life and Health Sciences, Laboratory for Inorganic Chemical Biology, F-75005 Paris

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2021.845

PMID:

34728011

Keywords:

Medicinal inorganic chemistry, Metals in medicine, Photodynamic therapy (PDT), Photosensitizer, Ru(II) polypyridyl complex

Abstract

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a remarkable alternative or complementary technique to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or immunotherapy to treat certain forms of cancer. The synergistic effect of light, photosensitizer (PS) and oxygen allows for the treatment of tumours with an extremely high spatio-tumoral control, therefore minimizing the severe side effects usually observed in chemotherapy. The currently employed PDT PSs based on porphyrins have, in some cases, some limitations, which include a low absorbance in the therapeutic window, a low body clearance, photobleaching, among others. In this context, Ru(II) polypyridyl complexes are interesting alternatives. They have low lying excited energy states and the presence of a heavy metal increases the possibility of spin-orbit coupling. Moreover, their photophysical properties are relatively easy to tune and they have very low photobleaching rates. All of these make them attractive candidates for further development as therapeutically suitable PDT PS’s. In this review, after having presented this field of research, we discuss the developments made by our group in this field of research since 2017. We notably describe how we tuned the photophysical properties of our complexes from the visible region to the therapeutically suitable red region. This was accompanied by the preparation of PSs with enhanced phototoxicity and high phototoxicity index. We also discuss the use of two-photon excitation to eradicate tumours in nude mice. Furthermore, we describe our approach for the selective delivery of our complexes using targeting agents. Lastly, we report on our very recent synergistic approach to treat cancer using bimetallic Ru(II)-Pt(IV) prodrug candidates.

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Published

2021-10-11

Issue

Section

Scientific Articles

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