Water-soluble green perylenediimide (PDI) dyes as potential sensitizers for photodynamic therapy

[reaction: see text] A series of water-soluble green perylenediimide (PDI) dyes have been synthesized. On red light excitation, these dyes were shown to be efficient generators of singlet oxygen, and in cell culture media, they were shown to display significant light-induced cytotoxic effects on the human erythroleukemia cell line (K-562). It appears that highly versatile PDI dyes are likely to find new applications in photodynamic therapy.