ArticleChemical science2025
Surfing the limits of cyanine photocages one step at a time.
Article in Chemical science, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Design rules for externally triggered drug uncaging under optical and radiolytic regimes.European journal of pharmaceutics and biopharmaceutics : official journal of Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Pharmazeutische Verfahrenstechnik e.V · 2026Review
- TagC-RED: An Infrared-Triggered Retro-Ene Reaction for Deep-Tissue Bioconjugation.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2026Article
- Near-Infrared-Light-Driven Photochemistry and Photocatalysis: Mechanisms, Recent Applications, and Opportunities in Organic Synthesis and Biology.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Review
- Cyanines Substituted on the Polymethine Chain: Synthesis, Resulting Properties, and Application Use Cases.ChemPlusChem · 2025Review
- Photocleavable Systems for Cell Biology: Conceptual Design across Molecular Modalities.Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology · 2025Review
- Breaking Bonds with Short-Wave Infrared Light: BODIPY Photocages for Two-Photon Activation in the 900-1500 nm NIR-II Window.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Near-infrared light-activated photocages enable controlling molecules with tissue penetrating light. Understanding the structural aspects that govern the photouncaging process is essential to enhancing their efficacy, crucial for practical applications. Here we explore the impact of thermodynamic stabilization on contact ion pairs in cyanine photocages by quaternarization of the carbon reaction centers. This strategy enables the first direct uncaging of carboxylate payloads independent of oxygen, resulting in a remarkable two-orders-of-magnitude enhancement in uncaging efficiency. Our computational analyses reveal that these modifications confer a kinetic instead of thermodynamic effect, reducing ion-ion interactions and allowing complete separation of free ions while inhibiting recombination. We demonstrate that, while thermodynamic stabilization is effective in traditional chromophores operating at shorter wavelengths, it rapidly reaches its thermodynamic limitations in NIR photocages by compromising the photocage stability in the dark. Thanks to these findings, we establish that activation of cyanine photocages is limited to wavelengths of light below 1000 nm. Our work illuminates the path to improving uncaging cross-sections in NIR photocages by prioritizing kinetic trapping and separation of ions.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.