Towards near-infrared photoactivation of anticancer metal complexes.

Abstract

Photoactivatable transition metal complexes are an attractive alternative to classic metal-based chemotherapeutic drugs. Light activation provides high spatial and temporal control of therapeutic action, potentially resulting in improved anticancer efficacy and lower side effects.Nevertheless, limited absorption features of transition metal complexes in the phototherapeutic window (650¿1000 nm) hamper their advances towards preclinical and clinical stages.In this Ph.D. thesis, I present new promising strategies to integrate Ru and Pt prodrugs candidates with upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) and to use near-infrared light (highly penetrating) for the in situ generation of biologically metal-based active species. UCNPs are lanthanide-doped nanocrystals with unique luminescence properties. They can effectively convert near-infrared light (980 nm) into UV-visible light, and trigger the photochemistry of anticancer metal complexes. In this work, I report the structural and photophysical study (including DFT calculations) of various metal compounds and the complete characterization and photochemistry investigation of the resulting systems UCNP-metal complexes.