Osmium (Os)-based photosensitizers (PSs) exhibit unique broad, red-shifted absorption, favoring PDT activity at greater tissue depths. We recently reported on a potent Os(II) PS, rac-[Os(phen)2(IP-4T)](Cl)2 (ML18J03) with submicromolar hypoxia activity. ML18J03 exhibits a low luminescence quantum yield of 9.8 × 10-5 in PBS, which limits its capacity for in vivo luminescence imaging. We recently showed that formulating ML18J03 into 10.2 nm DSPE-mPEG2000 micelles (Mic-ML18J03) increases its luminescence quantum yield by two orders of magnitude. Here, we demonstrate that Mic-ML18J03 exhibits 47-fold improved accumulative luminescence signals in orthotopic AT-84 head and neck tumors. We show, for the first time, that micellar formulation provides up to 11.7-fold tumor selectivity for ML18J03. Furthermore, Mic-ML18J03 does not experience the concentration-dependent quenching observed with unformulated ML18J03 in PBS, and formulation reduces spectral shifting of the emission maxima during PDT (variance = 6.5 and 27.3, respectively). The Mic-ML18J03 formulation also increases the production of reactive molecular species 2-3-fold. These findings demonstrate that micellar formulation is a versatile and effective approach to enable in vivo luminescence imaging options for an otherwise quenched, yet promising, PS.
Keywords: hypoxia; luminescence imaging; micellar formulation; osmium photosensitizers; phosphorescence imaging; photodynamic therapy.