Two hybrid materials
were designed by conjugating peptide nucleic
acids (PNAs) to porphyrin or boron-dipyrromethene, generating PNA-porphyrin
(PNA-TPP) and PNA-BODIPY (PNA-BDP) conjugates, respectively. Because
of the combination of the supramolecular characteristics of PNAs and
photosensitizers, the two hybrid conjugates readily self-assemble
in aqueous solutions and produce well-defined nanoparticles with uniform
particle sizes. The resulting two kinds of nanoparticles show good
stability in biological solutions and upon dilution. Importantly,
the nanoparticles can efficiently interact with cancer cells and the
internalized nanoparticles are mainly distributed in the cytoplasm
without discernible cytotoxicity in the dark, enabling them to be
applied as photodynamic nanoagents for selective killing cells. Hence,
self-assembly of PNA–photosensitizer conjugates may hold promise
for advancing the rational design and construction of photodynamic
nanoagents for cancer therapy
