Synergistic phototherapy of NIR wavelength xanthene-quinoline salt-based heavy-atom-free photosensitizers for tumor therapy.

We propose a practical strategy to design a series of heavy-atom-free synergistic phototherapy agents (CSQs) with both photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) under NIR wavelength excitation by simply replacing the indole salt of xanthene Changsha (CS) with quinoline salt.

RIG-I Promotes Tumorigenesis and Confers Radioresistance of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Regulating DUSP6.

We investigated the expression and biological function of retinoic acid inducible gene I (RIG-I) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Materials and methods: An immunohistochemical analysis was performed on 86 pairs of tumor tissue and adjacent normal tissue samples of patients with ESCC. We generated RIG-I-overexpressing ESCC cell lines KYSE70 and KYSE450, and RIG-I- knockdown cell lines KYSE150 and KYSE510. Cell viability, migration and invasion, radioresistance, DNA damage, and cell cycle were evaluated using CCK-8, wound-healing and transwell assay, colony formation, immunofluorescence, and flow cytometry and Western blotting, respectively. RNA sequencing was performed to determine the differential gene expression between controls and RIG-I knockdown. Tumor growth and radioresistance were assessed in nude mice using xenograft models. RIG-I expression was higher in ESCC tissues compared with that in matched non-tumor tissues. RIG-I overexpressing cells had a higher proliferation rate than RIG-I knockdown cells. Moreover, the knockdown of RIG-I slowed migration and invasion rates, whereas the overexpression of RIG-I accelerated migration and invasion rates. RIG-I overexpression induced radioresistance and G2/M phase arrest and reduced DNA damage after exposure to ionizing radiations compared with controls; however, it silenced the RIG-I enhanced radiosensitivity and DNA damage, and reduced the G2/M phase arrest. RNA sequencing revealed that the downstream genes DUSP6 and RIG-I had the same biological function; silencing DUSP6 can reduce the radioresistance caused by the overexpression of RIG-I. RIG-I knockdown depleted tumor growth in vivo, and radiation exposure effectively delayed the growth of xenograft tumors compared with the control group. RIG-I enhances the progression and radioresistance of ESCC; therefore, it may be a new potential target for ESCC-targeted therapy.

Synthesis and spectroscopic properties of some novel BODIPY dyes.

BODIPY dyes have some unique properties including high fluorescence quantum yield, large extinction coefficiency, narrow absorption and emission band. However, most of BODIPY dyes display short emission wavelength and small Stokes shift, which limits their applications in biosensing and bioimaging in vivo. For bioimaging application, a fluorescent dye with long emission wavelength and large Stokes shift is highly desired. To push the absorption and emission spectrum of BODIPY to red and even far-red region, a COOEt group was introduced to the meso position, and some aromatic group was attached to the 3, 5 position of BODIPY core. The structure of resulting compounds were comfirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR and HR-MS. Dye-1 displays a strong UV-Vis absorption band centered at 536 nm and a sharp emission band is located at 592 nm, which is significantly red-shifted (80 nm) compared to ordinary BODIPY analogs. In addition, the meso-COOEt substituted BODIPYs exhibit high quantum yield and red to far-red emission. Notably surprisingly, the meso-COOEt substituted BODIPYs display almost separated UV-Vis absorption and emission spectra with a large Stokes shift (-60 nm). Time-dependent density functional theory calculations were conducted to understand the structure-optical properties relationship, and it was revealed that the large Stokes shift was resulted from the geometric change from the ground state to the first excited singlet state. The spectroscopic properties of these BODIPY dyes display very subtle solvent-dependence effect. Furthermore, BODIPY was tested for its ability of imaging in living cells. The results indicate that Dye-1 is a water-soluble and membrane-permeable probe. Therefore, these BODIPYs are a new family dyes with excellent spectroscopic properties and can be good candidates for bioimaging in living cells.