Cytotoxicity and photocytotoxicity of structure-defined water-soluble C60/micelle supramolecular nanoparticles

Well-defined, water-soluble C-60/micelle hierarchical colloids with varied amounts of C-60 sitting on the surface of micellar cores were prepared via the self-assembly of PS-b-PDMA block copolymer micelles and C-60. The composites can generate a significant amount of reactive oxygen upon irradiation with red light. Cell studies showed that the colloids were either strongly associated with, or internalized by, the cells after 2 h incubation, but did not show obvious toxicity in the dark. In contrast, efficient cell killing was observed when the colloid-incubated cells were exposed to red light. This indicates that the supramolecular colloids are promising as photosensitizers for photodynamic cancer therapy.