Photocontrolled activation of doubly o-nitrobenzyl-protected small molecule benzimidazoles leads to cancer cell death† † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d3sc01786a

ABSTRACT: Artificial biomimetic chloride anionophores have shown promising applications as anticancer scaffolds. Importantly, stimuli-responsive chloride transporters that can be selectively activated inside the cancer cells to avoid undesired toxicity to normal, healthy cells are very rare. Particularly, light-responsive systems promise better applicability for photodynamic therapy because of their spatiotemporal controllability, low toxicity, and high tunability. Here, in this work, we report o-nitrobenzyl-linked, benzimidazole-based singly and doubly protected photocaged protransporters 2a, 2b, 3a, and 3b, respectively, and benzimidazole-2-amine-based active transporters 1a–1d. Among the active compounds, trifluoromethyl-based anionophore 1a showed efficient ion transport activity (EC50 = 1.2 ± 0

SUBMITTER: Ahmad M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10445434 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature