A novel BODIPY-based nano-photosensitizer with aggregation-induced emission for cancer photodynamic therapy

Abstract

The discovery of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect provides opportunities for the rapid development of fluorescence imaging-guided photodynamic therapy (PDT). In this work, a boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY)-based photosensitizer (ET-BDP-O) with AIE characteristics was developed, in which the two linear arms of BODIPY group were linked with triphenylamine to form an electron Donor–Acceptor–Donor (D–A–D) architecture while side chain was equipped with triethylene glycol group. ET-BDP-O was able to directly self-assemble into nanoparticles (NPs) without supplement of any other matrices or stabilizers due to its amphiphilic property. The as-prepared ET-BDP-O NPs had an excellent colloid stability with the size of 125 nm. Benefiting from the AIE property, ET-BDP-O NPs could generate strong fluorescence and reactive oxygen species under light-emitting diode light irradiation (60[Formula: see text]mW/cm[Formula: see text]. After internalized in cancer cells, ET-BDP-O NPs were able to emit bright red fluorescence signal for bioimaging. In addition, the cell viability assay demonstrated that the ET-BDP-O NPs exhibited excellent photo-cytotoxicity against cancer cells, while negligible cytotoxicity under dark environment. Thus, ET-BDP-O NPs might be regarded as a promising photosensitizer for fluorescence imaging-guided PDT in future.