Red-Light Triggered Photouncaging from Dicyanomethylene-4H-pyran Phototrigger in Aqueous Solution: Applied as a Single Component Nano-Drug Delivery System for Cancer Therapy

The development of Photoremovable protecting groups (PRPGs), which can be activated in the ʽphototherapeutic windowʼ for biological applications, is highly challenging. Only PRPGs based on BODIPY dye have been developed so far, which can be excited ≥600 nm. Herein, we developed for the first time NIR dye hydroxystyryl dicyanomethylene-4H-pyran (DCM) as a PRPG that can be operated in the phototherapeutic window. Ours easily synthesized DCM photocages efficiently released aromatic and aliphatic carboxylic acids in an aqueous solution on irradiation using the light of wavelength ≥600 nm and 650 nm, separately. As an application, we used our DCM-PRPG as a single component nanocarrier drug delivery system (DDS) to uncage valproic acid (a known histone deacetylase inhibitor) for cancer treatment. In vitro studies revealed that our DDS, hydroxystyryl dicyanomethylene-4H-pyran valproic acid conjugate nanoparticles (DCM-VPA-NPs) exhibited good cellular internalization, biocompatibility, and enhanced cytotoxicity upon irradiation.