Self-Assembly of Porphyrin-Containing Metalla-Assemblies and Cancer Photodynamic Therapy
Xin Jiang, Zhixuan Zhou, Yang Huang, Chuan Shan, Hao Yu, Łukasz Wojtas, Mingming Zhang, Zhengwei Mao, Ming Wang, Peter J. Stang
Abstract
In this report, we describe the synthesis of two porphyrin-containing Pt(II) supramolecular assemblies via coordination-driven self-assembly. X-ray crystallographic analysis on one assembly reveals that the metalla-assembly formation imposes large interchromophore distances, leading to a higher 1O2 generation efficiency, relative to the corresponding small molecular precursors. The metalla-assemblies were examined as photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy as the potential reduction of the unfavorable self-aggregation phenomenon. In vivo and in vitro investigations demonstrate that the metalla-assemblies exhibit enhanced anticancer activity with minimal dose requirement and side effects comparable to the small molecule precursors. Thus, our work demonstrates that self-assembly provides a promising methodology for enhancing the therapeutic effectiveness of anticancer agents.