Research advances in BODIPY-assembled supramolecular photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising therapeutic approach for anticancer and antibacterial treatment via photoinduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Photosensitizer, the most important element of PDT, plays a decisive role in PDT treatment. BODIPY dyes, as a class of well-developed fluorescent dyes, have emerged as a new class of PDT agents over the past decade owing to their versatile and remarkable properties including high molar extinction coefficients and singlet-to-triplet intersystem crossing efficiencies, tunable absorption and emission wavelengths, good ROS-generation ability, excellent photo-and chemical-stability, and easy functionalization. Several chemical approaches have been applied to tune BODIPY fluorophores into triplet photo-sensitizers via converting the typical fluorescence decay into a non-radiative intersystem crossing to the triplet state. However, the poor water solubility, low tumor selectivity and limited biocompatibility still hamper their biological application. Supramolecular assembly strategies have provided a promising avenue to overcome current problems of BODIPY-based molecular photosensitizers in photodynamic anticancer and antibacterial therapy. So far, numerous types of self-assembled nano-platforms have been established for construction of BODIPY-assembled supramolecular photosensitizers. This review presents the main molecular design approaches for constructing BODIPY-based photosensitizers and systematically summarizes the research progress of BODIPY-assembled supramolecular photosensitizers for PDT treatment to provide meaningful guidance for developing highly efficient BODIPY-based photosensitizers suitable for their clinical translation and application.

Automated summary

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising approach for anticancer and antibacterial treatment by generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) through light activation. BODIPY dyes, as the most important element of PDT, face challenges of poor water solubility, low tumor selectivity, and limited biocompatibility.