Millions of people from across the world are familiar with cancer and its effects. Many treatments for this fast-growing disease are harsh due to its lack of specificity for malignant cells over healthy ones, of which nearly half of all chemotherapeutics administered today are platinum-based drugs. Photodynamic chemotherapeutics (PDTs) circumvent that issues by allowing the drug to be activated closer to the cancer cells, preserving the good cells throughout the body. Herein we present the synthesis, characterization, and photodynamic data of a series of ruthenium(II) polypyridyl compounds that can be used as PDTs. These compounds move their light absorption into the near-infrared, which has been demonstrated to penetrate skin deeper than previous PDTs. In addition, we have demonstrated there is a balance between moving the absorption into the near-IR and the ability to photo-activate the PDT drug.

Absorption properties of ruthenium-based photodynamic chemotherapeutics

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.