Mitochondrion-targeting chemiluminescent ternary supramolecular assembly for in situ photodynamic therapy

The development of smart supramolecular self-assemblies for photodynamic therapy (PDT) and organelle-targeting cell imaging has become a hot topic of research due to their rapid and intelligent responses. Herein, we report a novel ternary supramolecular assembly of nanoparticles, composed specifically of photosensitizer molecules 4,4'-(dibenzo[a,c]phenazine-9,14-diyl)pyridin-1-ium bromide (DPAC-S) and cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) co-assembled with bis[2,4,5-trichloro-6-(pentyloxycarbonyl)phenyl]oxalate (CPPO). Overexpressed hydrogen peroxide in tumor cells was used to rapidly stimulate these nanoparticles to produce chemiluminescence and simultaneously sensitize oxygen molecules to singlet oxygen (¹O₂) for in situ PDT. A cell imaging experiment further confirmed the ability of the nanoparticle assembly to effectively target mitochondria, a feature beneficial for enhancing PDT.