The use of photodynamic therapy (PDT) against cancer has received increasing attention over recent years. However, the application of the currently approved photosensitizers (PSs) is limited by their poor aqueous solubility, aggregation, photobleaching and slow clearance from the body. To overcome these limitations, there is a need for the development of new classes of PSs with ruthenium(II) polypyridine complexes currently gaining momentum. However, these compounds generally lack significant absorption in the biological spectral window, limiting their application to treat deep-seated or large tumors. To overcome this drawback, ruthenium(II) polypyridine complexes designed in silico with (E,E′)-4,4′-bisstyryl-2,2′-bipyridine ligands show impressive 1- and 2-Photon absorption up to a magnitude higher than the ones published so far. While nontoxic in the dark, these compounds are phototoxic in various 2D monolayer cells, 3D multicellular tumor spheroids and are able to eradicate a multiresistant tumor inside a mouse model upon clinically relevant 1-Photon and 2-Photon excitation.

近年来，针对癌症的光动力疗法（PDT）的使用受到越来越多的关注。但是，目前批准的光敏剂（PSs）的应用受到水溶性差，聚集，光致漂白和从体内清除缓慢的限制。为了克服这些局限性，需要开发新型的带有钌（II）聚吡啶配合物的新型聚苯乙烯。然而，这些化合物通常在生物光谱窗口中缺乏明显的吸收，从而限制了它们在治疗深部或大肿瘤中的应用。为克服此缺点，在计算机上设计了具有（E，E的钌（II）聚吡啶络合物'）-4,4'-双苯乙烯基-2,2'-联吡啶配体显示出令人印象深刻的1和2光子吸收率，其幅度比迄今为止公布的值高。尽管这些化合物在黑暗中无毒，但它们在各种2D单层细胞，3D多细胞肿瘤球体中具有光毒性，并在临床相关的1-Photon和2-Photon激发下能够根除小鼠模型内的多抗性肿瘤。