Examinando por Autor "Cuadro, Ana M."

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Highly efficient unbridged D-A+(D) chromophores based on the quinolizinium cation for nonlinear optical (NLO) applications.
(Elsevier, 2022-04-14) Sánchez-Pavón, Esmeralda; Recio, Javier; Ramirez, Marco Antonio; Batanero, Belen; Clays, Koen; Mendicuti, Francisco; Marcelo, Gema; Carmona, Thais; Castaño, Obis; Angelova, Silvia; Andres, Jose L.; Vaquero, Juan J.; Cuadro, Ana M.
Novel charged D-A+ chromophores based on quinolizinium cations as acceptor unit have been prepared by treating haloquinolizinium salts with N-heteroarylstannanes under Stille reaction conditions. This approach provides an easy access to potential one-dimensional D-A+ and two-dimensional D-A+-D chromophores in which the acceptor moiety (A+) is the simple azonia cation and the donors are different π-rich N-heterocycles. The first hyperpolarizabilities (β) were measured by hyper-Rayleigh scattering experiments and the experimental data confirmed that the inherent polarization between donor and acceptor fragments modulates the NLO properties. The electronic structures and properties (including both the linear and nonlinear optical properties) of the quinolizinium chromophores were examined by theoretical (DFT, HF and MP2) calculations. A promising strategy for the rational design of D-A building blocks to create new organic-based NLO materials is proposed.
Two-photon activated precision molecular photosensitizer targeting mitochondria
(Nature Research, 2021-10-07) Santiago, Ana M.; Mariz, Inês F. A.; Pinto, Sandra N.; Martinho, José M. G.; Recio, Javier; Vaquero, Juan J.; Cuadro, Ana M.; Maçôas, Ermelinda
Mitochondria metabolism is an emergent target for the development of novel anticancer agents. It is amply recognized that strategies that allow for modulation of mitochondrial function in specific cell populations need to be developed for the therapeutic potential of mitochondria-targeting agents to become a reality in the clinic. In this work, we report dipolar and quadrupolar quinolizinium and benzimidazolium cations that show mitochondria targeting ability and localized light-induced mitochondria damage in live animal cells. Some of the dyes induce a very efficient disruption of mitochondrial potential and subsequent cell death under two-photon excitation in the Near-infrared (NIR) opening up possible applications of azonia/azolium aromatic heterocycles as precision photosensitizers. The dipolar compounds could be excited in the NIR due to a high two-photon brightness while exhibiting emission in the red part of the visible spectra (600–700 nm). Interaction with the mitochondria leads to an unexpected blue-shift of the emission of the far-red emitting compounds, which we assign to emission from the locally excited state. Interaction and possibly aggregation at the mitochondria prevents access to the intramolecular charge transfer state responsible for far-red emission.