TY - JOUR

T1 - Surfactant Semiconductors as Trojan Horses in Cell-Membranes for On-Demand and Spatial Regulation of Oxidative Stress

AU - Jaschke, Marian

AU - Plenge, Masina

AU - Kunkel, Marius

AU - Lehrich, Tina

AU - Schmidt, Julia

AU - Stöckemann, Kilian

AU - Heinemann, Dag

AU - Siroky, Stephan

AU - Ngezahayo, Anaclet

AU - Polarz, Sebastian

N1 - Funding Information: M.J. and M.P. contributed equally to this work. The authors thank Helma Feierabend for technical support. Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

PY - 2023/4/17

Y1 - 2023/4/17

N2 - Oxidative stress is a cause for numerous diseases and aging processes. Thus, researchers are keen to tune the level of intracellular stress and to learn from that. An unusual approach is presented here. The methodology involves multifunctional surfactants. Although their molecular design is nonbiological—a fullerenol head group attached covalently to pi-conjugated dyes—the surfactants possess superior biocompatibility. Using an intrinsic fluorescence signal as a probe, it is shown that the amphiphiles become incorporated into the Caco-2 cells. There, they are able to exhibit additional functions. The compound reduces cellular stress in dark reaction pathways. The antagonistic property is activated under irradiation, the photocatalytic production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), resulting in cell damage. The feature is activated even by near-infrared light (NIR-light) via a two-photon process. The properties as molecular semiconductors lead to a trojan horse situation and allows the programming of the spatial distribution of cytotoxicity.

AB - Oxidative stress is a cause for numerous diseases and aging processes. Thus, researchers are keen to tune the level of intracellular stress and to learn from that. An unusual approach is presented here. The methodology involves multifunctional surfactants. Although their molecular design is nonbiological—a fullerenol head group attached covalently to pi-conjugated dyes—the surfactants possess superior biocompatibility. Using an intrinsic fluorescence signal as a probe, it is shown that the amphiphiles become incorporated into the Caco-2 cells. There, they are able to exhibit additional functions. The compound reduces cellular stress in dark reaction pathways. The antagonistic property is activated under irradiation, the photocatalytic production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), resulting in cell damage. The feature is activated even by near-infrared light (NIR-light) via a two-photon process. The properties as molecular semiconductors lead to a trojan horse situation and allows the programming of the spatial distribution of cytotoxicity.

KW - biocompatible amphiphiles

KW - reactive oxygen species

KW - self-assembly

KW - semiconductor surfactants

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85146362142&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/adhm.202202290

DO - 10.1002/adhm.202202290

M3 - Article

C2 - 36564363

AN - SCOPUS:85146362142

VL - 12

JO - Advanced healthcare materials

JF - Advanced healthcare materials

SN - 2192-2640

IS - 10

M1 - 2202290

ER -