Imaging and therapeutic applications of Zn(ii)-cryptolepine–curcumin molecular probes in cell apoptosis detection and photodynamic therapy

Abstract

The probes could synergistically promote mitochondrion-mediated apoptosis and enhance tumor therapeutic effects during photodynamic therapy.

Strong In Vitro And Vivo Cytotoxicity Of Two Platinum(II) Complexes With Cryptolepine Derivatives

“…We speculated that the considerable differences in the anti-tumor activities of BQL1-Pt and BQL2-Pt might be a consequence of differences in their hydrocarbon chain length. Further, the IC 50 values of BQL1-Pt and BQL2-Pt against T-24 cells were as low as 1.3 ± 0.1 and 0.2 ± 0.2 µM, respectively; these values are approximately 6.5 − 100.7-fold lower than those of cisplatin (13.2 ± 1.3 µM), 2,2′-dipicolylamine Pt(II) complex (20.14 ± 1.09 µM) [44] and cryptolepine Zn metal complexes (5.92 ± 0.35 µM) [61]. More importantly, BQL1-Pt and BQL2-Pt were remarkably toxic to T-24 cells but less toxic to normal HL-7702 cells (> 100 µM).…”

“…Noteworthily, cryptolepine, the natural product, and its quindoline derivatives have been identi ed as Gquadruplex ligands and shown signi cant effects against all kinds of cancer cells [55 − 61]. Only two cryptolepine Zn metal complexes have been reported so far ( Figure S1) [61]. We report here, for the rst time, Pt(II) complexes with the other quindoline derivatives.…”

“…BQL2-Pt inhibited tumor growth in a statistically signi cant manner with an inhibition ratio (IR) of 55.3% (Table S2 − S4, and Fig. 3D) as compared with untreated mice; this IR was better than that of the cryptolepine Zn metal complexes (IR = 43.0% and 50.7%) [61,87] and cisplatin (IR = 37.1%) [31 − 54]. Importantly, no evident side effects such as body weight loss (Table S3 − S5) or no animal death were observed in BQL2-Pt-treated groups.…”

“…Synthesis of 11-chlorobenzofuro[3,2-b]quinolone (BQ) and [5-(benzo[4, 5]furo [3,2-b]quinolin-11-yloxy)pentyl]-bis-pyridin-2-ylmethyl-amine (BQL1) were carried out according to published methods [61].…”

“…In reference to dipicolylamine Pt(II) complex and cisplatin, the antiproliferative activity was in the following order: BQL2-Pt > BQL1-Pt > cisplatin > 2,2′-dipicolylamine Pt(II) complex. As expected, compared to 2,2′-dipicolylamine, the neutral BQL1 and BQL2 ligands bearing cryptolepine derivatives increased the planarity and branched chain of the complexes, resulting in the formation of BQL1-Pt and BQL2-Pt with favorable antitumor activities [31 − 54] Results And Discussion Chemistry [5-(benzo[4, 5]furo [3,2-b]quinolin-11-yloxy)-pentyl]-bis-pyridin-2-ylmethyl-amine (BQ), 2,2′-dipicolylamine Pt(II) complex (Figure S2), and BQL1 ligand were synthesized according to the procedure previously reported by our group [44,61]. The BQL2 ligand was rst synthesized through the synthetic routes shown in Fig.…”