Ruthenium-based assemblies incorporating tetrapyridylporphyrin panels: a photosensitizer delivery strategy for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis by photodynamic therapy

Dalton Trans. 2022 Jun 27;51(25):9673-9680. doi: 10.1039/d2dt00917j.

Abstract

Ruthenium-based assemblies containing tetrapyridylporphyrins (TPyP) in their structure have been evaluated as photosensitizers (PS) to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by photodynamic therapy (PDT). TPyP is useless by itself as a PS due to its low solubility in biological media, however, incorporated in metallacages it can be internalized in cells. The study shows a cellular antiproliferative activity in fibroblast-like synoviocyte (FLS) in the lower nanomolar range in the presence of light, and no dark toxicity at 1 μM concentration, thus having an excellent photoactivity index. The presence of diamagnetic (Zn2+) and paramagnetic (Co2+) metals in the center of TPyP impairs the effectiveness of PDT, showing no (Co) or reduced (Zn) photoactivity. A total of five metallacages with different structural characteristics have been evaluated, and our results suggest that the incorporation of PS in metalla-assemblies is not only an elegant method to increase solubility in biological media for TPyP but also appears to be an efficient hybrid system to treat RA by PDT.

MeSH terms

  • Arthritis, Rheumatoid* / drug therapy
  • Fibroblasts
  • Humans
  • Photochemotherapy* / methods
  • Photosensitizing Agents / chemistry
  • Ruthenium* / pharmacology
  • Ruthenium* / therapeutic use

Substances

  • Photosensitizing Agents
  • Ruthenium