Joshua Rahmon / Chemistry & Biochemistry / Faculty Mentor: Sherri McFarland
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a complementary approach to conventional forms of cancer treatment, such as surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. This highly selective therapy enables precise destruction of invasive cancer cells, while sparing the healthy tissue surrounding the targeted tumor. PDT, in its simplest definition, employs a nontoxic photosensitizer (PS) that is activated by a specific wavelength of light to destroy cancer cells via singlet oxygen or other reactive molecular species. Currently, the only FDA approved drug for PDT is Photofrin™, a porphyrin-based organic PS. Second and third generation PSs are also based on porphyrins as well and a few other tetrapyrrolic systems. We have a longstanding interest in utilizing highly tunable metallodrugs as PSs for PDT because they have a variety of excited state configurations, with interesting reactivities, that can be accessed with low energy light. Specifically, ruthenium(II) and osmium(II) PSs are showing promise, with our own TLD1433 undergoing Phase II human clinical trial against non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. In this work, we report the synthesis and characterization of a ruthenium(II) terpyridine-based family of PSs and highlight some of their photophysical and photobiological properties.
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