Design of a multifunctionalizable BODIPY platform for the facile elaboration of a large series of gold(i)-based optical theranostics

A simple trifunctional BODIPY platform was designed. The high potential of this platform was validated via the elaboration of twelve optical theranostics. More specifically, we reported on the synthesis, the characterization, the photophysical properties, and the evaluation of the hydrophilicity properties of the different BODIPY derivatives, as well as a theoretical rationalization of the intriguing chemical behavior of some of them. The antiproliferative evaluation and confocal imaging of the different compounds in three human and murine cancer cell lines were performed and analysed, along with the measurement of gold(i) uptake in one cancer cell line via ICP-MS.