Exploration of FeIII-Phenol Complexes for Photothermal Therapy and Photoacoustic Imaging

Yanbing Wang; Feng Liu; Nan Yan; Shu Sheng; Caina Xu; Huayu Tian; Xuesi Chen

doi:10.1021/acsbiomaterials.9b00711

Exploration of Fe^III-Phenol Complexes for Photothermal Therapy and Photoacoustic Imaging

ACS Biomater Sci Eng. 2019 Sep 9;5(9):4700-4707. doi: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.9b00711. Epub 2019 Jul 24.

Authors

Yanbing Wang^{1

2

3}, Feng Liu^{1

4

3}, Nan Yan^{1

4

3}, Shu Sheng^{1

4

3}, Caina Xu^{1

3}, Huayu Tian^{1

2

4

3}, Xuesi Chen^{1

2

4

3}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, PR China.
² University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China.
³ Jilin Biomedical Polymers Engineering Laboratory, Changchun 130022, PR China.
⁴ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China.

PMID: 33448842
DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.9b00711

Abstract

Photothermal therapy (PTT) has received extensive attention because of its excellent antitumor effect, specific selectivity, and minimal invasiveness. Fe^III-phenol complexes with good biocompatibility and biosafety have widespread applications in PTT. However, the comparison of different Fe^III-phenol complexes for photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and PTT has been rarely reported. Herein, we prepared a series of Fe^III-phenol complexes using phenols with different structures via a simple one-step method. We then systematically investigated their ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorbance, photothermal performance, and PAI capability. Phenols, including ortho diphenol or triphenol, were important components of Fe^III-phenol complexes with strong capacity for UV-vis absorbance, photothermal performance, and PAI. The representative Fe^III-pyrocatechol (PC) and Fe^III-tannic acid (TA) complexes exhibited excellent photothermal performance and could induce MCF-7 cell death with laser irradiation. Moreover, Fe^III-PC and Fe^III-TA complexes emitted strong photoacoustic (PA) signals and might be used as PA agents. After comprehensive consideration, Fe^III-TA complexes were identified as optimal PTT agents with PAI for cancer treatment. This study has a high reference value for the application of Fe^III-phenol complexes to cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Keywords: FeIII-phenol complexes; UV−vis absorbance; photoacoustic imaging (PAI); photothermal therapy (PTT).