Mitochondria-targeted red light-activated superoxide radical-mediated photodynamic therapy of breast cancer

Mitochondria are important regulators of many cellular functions and are considered to be one of the most important subcellular organelles for targeting and delivering photosensitizers due to their high sensitivity to reactive oxygen species (ROS). Herein, we designed and synthesized two novel based aminophenoxazinone D-A-π-A photosensitizers (PVPC-1 and PVPC-6), which have satisfactory photostable and high absorption coefficients in the near-infrared (NIR) region. PVPC-6 has excellent mitochondrial targeting ability, and can efficiently generate superoxide radical (O2•-) inside mitochondria after red light irradiation, which trigger cancer cell apoptosis.