Near-Infrared Heptamethine Cyanine Photosensitizers with Efficient Singlet Oxygen Generation for Anticancer Photodynamic Therapy

Near-infrared photosensitizers are valuable tools to improve treatment depth in photodynamic therapy (PDT). However, their low singlet oxygen (1O2) generation ability, indicated by low 1O2 quantum yield, presents a formidable challenge for PDT. To overcome this challenge, the heptamethine cyanine was decorated with biocompatible S (Scy7) and Se (Secy7) atom. We observe that Secy7 exhibits a redshift in the main absorption to ~840 nm and an ultra-efficient 1O2 generation capacity. The emergence of a strong intramolecular charge transfer effect between the Se atom and polymethine chain considerably narrows the energy gap (0.51 eV), and the heavy atom effect of Se strengthens spin-orbit coupling (1.44 cm-1), both of which greatly improved the high triplet state yield (61 %), a state that determines the energy transfer to O2. Therefore, Secy7 demonstrated excellent 1O2 generation capacity, which is ~24.5-fold that of indocyanine green, ~8.2-fold that of IR780, and ~1.3-fold that of methylene blue under low-power-density 850 nm irradiation (5 mW cm-2). Secy7 exhibits considerable phototoxicity toward cancer cells buried under 12 mm of tissue. Nanoparticles formed by encapsulating Secy7 within amphiphilic polymers and lecithin, demonstrated promising antitumor and anti-pulmonary metastatic effects, exhibiting remarkable potential for advancing PDT in deep tissues.