TY - JOUR A1 - Radunz, Sebastian A1 - Wedepohl, S. A1 - Röhr, Mathilde A1 - Calderón, M. A1 - Tschiche, H. R. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute T1 - pH-Activatable Singlet Oxygen-Generating Boron-dipyrromethenes N2 - Singlet oxygen can severely damage biological tissue, which is exploited in photodynamic therapy (PDT). In PDT, the effective range is limited by the distribution of the photosensitizer (PS) and the illuminated area. However, no distinction is made between healthy and pathological tissue, which can cause undesired damage. This encouraged us to exploit the more acidic pH of cancerous tissue and design pH-controllable singlet oxygen-generating boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) dyes. A pH sensitivity of the dyes is achieved by the introduction of an electronically decoupled, photoinduced electron transfer (PET)-capable subunit in meso-position of the BODIPY core. To favor triplet-state formation as required for singlet Oxygen generation, iodine substituents were introduced at the chromophore core. The resulting pH-controlled singlet oxygen-generating dyes with pKa values in the physiological range were subsequently assessed regarding their potential as pH-controlled PS for PDT. Using HeLa cells, we could successfully demonstrate markedly different pH-dependent cytotoxicities upon illumination. KW - Fluorescence KW - Sensor KW - Switch KW - pH KW - Singlet oxygen KW - PDT KW - Cell KW - BODIPY KW - Dye KW - Probe KW - Synthesis PY - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b01873 VL - 63 IS - 4 SP - 1699 EP - 1708 PB - ACS Publications AN - OPUS4-50554 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -