LAUSR

Abstract The lack of ideal photosensitizers is the major limitation for clinical photodynamic therapy (PDT). Quinacridone (QA) is a mass-produced industrial organic pigment. QA derivatives are widely investigated for many applications in various fields, but rarely involved in biological applications. Here we report the PDT effects of N,N' -bis(methylpiperazinylpentyl) QA (QAP) in cells and in vivo . QAP shows low dark-toxicity and high photo-toxicity in cells through generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) under irradiation; and greatly inhibits the tumor growth in a mouse subcutaneous xenograft model after irradiation with a 532 nm laser. The high photodynamic efficiency of QAP shows the great potential of QA derivatives to be a new class of leading compound of photosensitizers in PDT.