Comparative Study of Sonodynamic and Photoactivated Cancer Therapies with Re(I)-Tricarbonyl Complexes Comprising Phenanthroline Ligands

Abstract

Herein, we have compared the effectivity of lightbased photoactivated cancer therapy and ultrasound-based sonodynamic therapy with Re(I)-tricarbonyl complexes (Re1− Re3) against cancer cells. The observed photophysical and TD-DFT calculations indicated the potential of Re1−Re3 to act as good anticancer agents under visible light/ultrasound exposure. Re1 did not display any dark-or light-or ultrasound-triggered anticancer activity. However, Re2 and Re3 displayed concentration-dependent anticancer activity upon light and ultrasound exposure. Interestingly, Re3 produced 1 O 2 and OH • on light/ ultrasound exposure. Moreover, Re3 induced NADH photooxidation in PBS and produced H 2 O 2 . To the best of our knowledge, NADH photo-oxidation has been achieved here with the Re(I) complex for the first time in PBS. Additionally, Re3 released CO upon light/ultrasound exposure. The cell death mechanism revealed that Re3 produced an apoptotic cell death response in HeLa cells via ROS generation. Interestingly, Re3 showed slightly better anticancer activity under light exposure compared to ultrasound exposure.

Visible and Red Light-Triggered Anticancer Profile of a Ferrocene-Re(I)-Tricarbonyl Conjugate: Experimental and Theoretical Studies

“…Under red light, ReFctp exhibited an IC 50 value of ∼5.4 μM against the A549 cell line (Table ). This result is of high significance, indicating that deeply buried tumors can be treated with ReFctp using the high tissue penetration depth of the red light . Moreover, this observation will enable us to study this complex as red light photochemotherapeutics in vivo .…”