Oxidovanadium(V) complexes as promising anticancer photosensitizers

Area of Science:

• Inorganic Chemistry
• Photochemistry
• Computational Chemistry

Background:

• Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a cancer treatment utilizing photosensitizers (PS) that accumulate in cancer cells.
• Effective PS require strong light absorption and selective cellular uptake for tumor cell death via oxidative stress.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate three oxidovanadium(V) Schiff base complexes as potential photosensitizers for PDT.
• To characterize their structural and photophysical properties using computational methods.

Main Methods:

• Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations.
• Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) for photophysical property prediction.
• Analysis of structural and absorption characteristics.

Main Results:

• Predicted maximum absorption around 460 nm, indicative of ligand-to-metal charge transfer.
• Characterization of photodynamic reactions for potential PS candidates.
• Identification of a triethylammonium-substituted complex as the most suitable candidate.

Conclusions:

• The studied oxidovanadium(V) complexes show potential as photosensitizers in PDT.
• The triethylammonium-substituted complex exhibits favorable properties for therapeutic application.
• Computational methods are valuable for designing novel PDT agents.