A novel near-infrared trifluoromethyl heptamethine cyanine dye with mitochondria-targeting for integration of collaborative treatment of photothermal and sonodynamic therapy

Both photothermal therapy (PTT) and sonodynamic therapy (SDT) are neoteric therapeutic method for tumor control and ablation without invasive. Herein, we report the synthesis of a newly designed nearinfrared (NIR) trifluoromethyl-heptamethine cyanine (TFHC) dye, which could synergistically work as a mitochondrial-targeting sonosensitizer for SDT and also a photothermal therapy agent (PTA) for PTT. The structure and chemical components of TFHC were determined by 1H NMR and mass spectrum (MS). Furthermore, the introduce of trifluoromethyl was proved drastically improving the biocompatibility of TFHC. Moreover, TFHC was capable to kill cancer cells with a high efficiency (80%) under NIR and ultrasound (US) without causing any significant side effects. In general, the prepared mitochondriatargeting TFHC obtains the synergy effect for the PTT and SDT with excellent therapeutic effects and low side effects, which can be harnessed for the combinational cancer non-invasive therapy in the near future. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

A newly designed near-infrared trifluoromethyl-heptamethine cyanine (TFHC) dye was synthesized, which can serve as a mitochondrial-targeting sonosensitizer for sonodynamic therapy and a photothermal therapy agent for photothermal therapy. TFHC has good biocompatibility and can efficiently kill cancer cells under near-infrared and ultrasound irradiation without significant side effects.