Induced DNA interstrand cross-links by chemical agents or photoactivation play very important roles for cancer therapy. Several important clinical drugs (e.g. cisplatin, psoralens, and mitomycin C) are known to induce DNA ISC formation, which can disrupt cell maintenance and replication. Among these anti-tumor agents, one mechanism was involved in quinone methide intermediate. Quinone methide derivative has played important roles in organic syntheses as well as in chemical and biological processes. This review is concerned with current efforts of quinone methide derivatives to DNA alkylation and DNA cross-links. The latest advances in this field will be reviewed in this article. The chemical and physical properties of quinone methide derivatives, the interactions between nucleobases and quinone methide derivatives, the reactions with phosphodiester, DNA alkylation and cross-link via quinone methide intermediate action will be discussed.
Aggregation‐caused fluorescence quenching with insufficient production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has limited the application of photosensitizers (PSs) in fluorescence‐imaging‐guided photodynamic therapy (PDT). Aggregation‐induced emission PSs (AIE‐PSs) exhibit enhanced fluorescence intensity and a high efficiency of ROS generation in the aggregation state, which provides an opportunity to solve the above problems. Herein, a series of AIE‐PSs are successfully designed and synthesized by adjusting the D–A intensity through molecular engineering. The photophysical properties and theoretical calculations prove that the synergistic effect of 3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene and quinolinium increases the intramolecular charge transfer effect (ICT) of the whole molecule and promotes the intersystem crossing (ISC) from the lowest excited singlet state (S1) to the lowest triplet state (T1). Among these AIE‐PSs, the optimal AIE‐PS (TPA‐DT‐Qy) exhibits the highest generation yield of 1O2 (5.3‐fold of Rose Bengal). Further PDT experiments show that the TPA‐DT‐Qy has a highly efficient photodynamic ablation of breast cancer cells (MCF‐7 and MDA‐MB‐231) under white light irradiation. Moreover, the photodynamic antibacterial study indicates that TPA‐DT‐Qy has the discrimination and excellent photodynamic inactivation of S. aureus. This work provides a feasible strategy for the molecular engineering of novel AIE‐PSs to improve the development of fluorescence‐imaging‐guided PDT.
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