Nguyễn Văn Nghĩa

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a clinically approved therapeutic modality that has shown great potential for the treatment of cancers owing to its excellent spatiotemporal selectivity and inherently noninvasive nature. However, PDT has not reached its full potential, partly due to the lack of ideal photosensitizers. A common molecular design strategy for effective photosensitizers is to incorporate heavy atoms into photosensitizer structures, causing concerns about elevated dark toxicity, short t

A novel strategy for designing highly efficient and activatable photosensitizers that can effectively generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) under both normoxia and hypoxia is proposed. Replacing both oxygen atoms in conventional naphthalimides (RNI-<b>O</b>) with sulfur atoms led to dramatic changes in the photophysical properties. The remarkable fluorescence quenching (Φ_PL ≈ 0) of the resulting thionaphthalimides (RNI-<b>S</b>) suggested that the intersystem crossing from the single

Microbial infectious diseases, especially those caused by new and antibiotic-resistant pathogenic microbes, have become a significant threat to global human health. As an antibiotic-free therapy, phototherapy is a promising approach to treat microbial infections due to its spatiotemporal selectivity, non-invasiveness, minimal side effects, and broad antimicrobial spectrum. Although organic photosensitizer-based antimicrobial phototherapy has been extensively studied over the last decade, there h

Novel BODIPY photosensitizers were developed for imaging-guided photodynamic therapy. The introduction of a strong electron donor to the BODIPY core through a phenyl linker combined with the twisted arrangement between the donor and the BODIPY acceptor is essential for reducing the energy gap between the lowest singlet excited state and the lowest triplet state (ΔE_ST ), leading to a significant enhancement in the intersystem crossing (ISC) of the BODIPYs. Remarkably, the BDP-5 with th

Theranostics that combines both diagnosis and therapy into a single platform has recently emerged as a promising biomedical approach for cancer treatment; however, the development of efficient theranostic agents with excellent optical properties remains a challenge. Here, we report novel mitochondria-targeting <b>BODIPY</b> photosensitizers (<b>R-BOD</b>s) that possess considerable singlet oxygen generation capabilities and good fluorescence properties for imaging-guided photodynamic therapy (PD

Organic thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials are emerging as potential candidates for time-resolved fluorescence imaging in biological systems. However, the development of purely organic TADF materials with bright aggregated-state emissions in the red/near-infrared (NIR) region remains challenging. Here, we report three donor-acceptor-type TADF molecules as promising candidates for time-resolved fluorescence imaging, which are engineered by direct connection of electron-dona

An approach to the design of nido-carborane-based luminescent compounds that can exhibit thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) is proposed. 7,8-Dicarba-nido-undecaboranes (nido-carboranes) having various 8-R groups (R=H, Me, i-Pr, Ph) are appended to the meta or para position of the phenyl ring of the dimesitylphenylborane (PhBMes₂ ) acceptor, forming donor-acceptor compounds (nido-m1-m4 and nido-p1-p4). The bulky 8-R group and meta substitution of the nido-carborane are ess

An effective approach to the design of photosensitizers was proposed and applied in two-photon excited photodynamic therapy of cancer.

Heteroleptic tris-cyclometalated Ir(III) complexes bearing an o-carborane at the 4- or 5-position in the phenyl ring of the ppy ligand (closo-1 and -2) were prepared and characterized. The X-ray crystal structure of closo-1 reveals the fac arrangement of the three C∧N chelates around the Ir atom. Treatment of closo complexes with fluoride anions led to selective deboronation of the closo-carborane cage, producing the corresponding nido-carborane-substituted complexes (nido-1 and -2). Whereas clo