Photoremovable Protecting Groups as Fluorescent Organic Nanoparticles (FONs) for Image-Guided Drug Delivery

For the applicability of a PRPG, we generally consider the emissiveness of a PRPG, offering not only an idea of cellular co-locatization but also real-time monitoring ability of the photorelease process by simply changing its fluorescence colour. Whereas, these polyaromatic cycles may suffer from lower solubility in the biological media. Preparing nanoparticles of these polyaromatic PRPGs helps to offer better solubility and higher cellular uptake by retaining their emissive properties while exploring the biomedical applications. My research group has developed, for the first time, a fluorescent organic nanoparticle-sized PRPG. FONs-based PRPG can act as a nanocarrier for drug delivery by itself, eliminating the critical steps involved in synthesizing inorganic photoresponsive nanocarriers. We developed drug-conjugated Perylene-3-ylmethanol, Acridin-9-methanol, and 1-Acetylpyrene fluorescent photocages as fluorescent organic nanoparticles. In vitro studies of all these nanoparticles revealed that these newly synthesized fluorescent organic nanoparticles exhibit good biocompatibility, cellular uptake, and efficient photoregulated anticancer drug release ability. Interestingly, we have explored these PRPGs for the controlled release of agrochemicals like pesticides, pheromones, and plant growth hormones.