Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a clinically approved, noninvasive cancer treatment that involves administering a photosensitizer (PS) and light to the affected area. The current range of photodynamic therapy agents is limited, and there is a pressing need for cost-effective, organic photosensitizers that can offer improved efficacy under multiple photosensitization mechanisms. In this talk, I will present some of the recent advances made by our group in developing biocompatible all-organic PSs that exhibit tunable absorption spectra from the ultraviolet-A (UVA) to the near-infrared (IR) regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Several of these PSs exhibit excellent PDT efficacy against monolayers of human epidermoid carcinoma, melanoma, cervical, and human epithelium cancer cells, regardless of the oxygenation status (i.e., under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions), when applied in vitro with a low dose of light.
The author acknowledges the support from the Case Western Research University Expanding Horizons Initiative in the College of Arts and Sciences through a 2023 Interdisciplinary award (INT-L) and the National Science Foundation (Grant No. CHE-2246805) for financial support.