A Strategy to Trap Oxygen and to Kill Cancer Cells by Photodynamic Therapy

Low oxygen concentration in solid cancer tumors leads to resistance, especially when dealing with photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatments. In fact, the presence of oxygen is mandatory to obtain an efficient PDT treatment. The synthesis of new oxygen carriers, specifically targeting cancer cells, appears to be an elegant strategy to tackle this issue. With this in mind, we have synthetized 15 arene ruthenium(II) assemblies containing different anthracenyl-based ligands in which the anthracenyl moieties were used to capture O2. We present their synthesis and characterization, as well as their photo-oxygenation and their toxicity/phototoxicity behavior on DU145 prostatic cancer cells. The possibility to transport oxygen via the formation of endoperoxides was further confirmed by mass spectrometry.