Superimposed Effect of Intramolecular Modular Assembling and Silver Coordination to Amplify Superoxide Anion Radical for Antitumor and Antibacterial Photodynamic therapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) calls for highly efficient photosensitizers with a Type I mechanism to overcome the limitation of the hypoxic microenvironment, which exists in both tumor tissues and bacterial infection sites. However, the rational design of Type I PDT photosensitizers is still a challenging goal. Herein, a dyad photosensitizer is developed based on an intramolecular modular assembling strategy to produce superoxide anion radical via a Type I mechanism. Further, the superoxide anion radical amplification is superimposed by silver coordination. In vitro and in vivo antitumor and antibacterial PDT experiments demonstrated the superimposed effect on superoxide anion radical amplification. This work opens a window to rationally design Type I PDT photosensitizers.