The Structural Effect and Mechanism Study of C70-carboxylfullerenes as an Efficient Sensitizer against Cancer Cells

Qiaoling Liu, Mirong Guan, Li Xu, Chunying Shu*, Chan Jin, Junpeng Zheng, Xiaohong Fang*, Yongji Yang, and Chunru Wang* DOI: 10.1002/smll.

Carboxylfullerenes with different adduct numbers and cage sizes are tested as photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy (PDT). The photodynamic efficiency of those carboxylfullerenes depended mainly on the cage size C60 vs. C70 and subsidiarily on the adduct numbers. Especially, malonic acid modified C70 fullerenes are more efficient than the C60 counterparts as photosensitizer, and the mechanism of cell death induced by carboxylfullerene C70 under light irradiation is investigated in detail. The results indicate that cell death occurs via necrosis accompanied by membrane blebbing, which is a unique phenomenon for photosensitizer induced cell death. Since carboxylfullerene C70 displays an efficient PDT property and negligible dark cytotoxicity, it is promising to be used in PDT application, especially in vas capillary diseased usually occurred under the shallow surface.