Development of a cysteine responsive chlorinated hemicyanine for image-guided dual phototherapy

[Display omitted] •A cysteine (Cys) responsive dual phototheranostic agent (Cl-Cys) was developed.•Cl-Cys marks the first ever example of a Cys activatable phototherapy agent.•The agent showed both 1O2 generation and photo-to-thermal conversion capacities upon 640 nm laser irradiation.•Selective photocytotoxicity and turn-on fluorescence response on cancerous A549 and Hela cells were detected.•Cl-Cys stayed inactive in normal cells. A cysteine (Cys) activatable chlorinated hemicyanine (Cl-Cys) was introduced as a tumour selective image-guided dual phototherapy agent. Cl-Cys exhibited a significant turn on response in its near-IR emission signal and activated its singlet oxygen generation as well as photothermal conversion potentials upon reacting with Cys. The laser irradiation of Cl-Cys induced significant cell death in cancer cells with high Cys level, while it stayed deactivated and non-emissive in a healthy cell line. A profound synergistic PDT/PTT effect was observed at high doses. Remarkably, Cl-Cys marks the first ever example of Cys-responsive small organic-based therapeutic agent and holds a great promise to develop new activity-based photosensitizers for dual phototherapy action.