Project Description

With a view to relinquish the further use of conventional anticancer drugs associated with a galore of side effects, herein we have focused our attention towards the development of biotin or folic acid conjugated highly selective mitochondria specific multinuclear iridium(III) and rhenium (I) based cyclometalated complexes adorned with excellent phosphorescence property. These complexes are being expected to be explored as very promising anticancer photo-theranostic drugs attaining the ability of tracing the location of cancer cells with elevated therapeutic efficacy and reduced side effects. Therefore, they will be adept in simultaneous diagnosis and annihilation of cancer from the body of cancer–riddled patient without damaging the normal tissue under the expose of NIR-LASER light through the production of either the reactive oxygen species or singlet oxygen. It will work on both hypoxia and normoxia condition creating the mitochondrial dysfunction in cancer cells and thus ensure the destruction of cancer following apoptotic pathway. In this context, it should be mentioned that even if very negligible amount of complex enters into the normal cell as the little accumulation of complexes will produce ROS below the threshold level that will be easily wiped out through the production of antioxidant genes by p53.