Heavy-Atom-Substituted Nucleobases in Photodynamic Applications: Substitution of Sulfur with Selenium in 6-Thioguanine Induces a Remarkable Increase in the Rate of Triplet Decay in 6-Selenoguanine

Sulfur substitution of carbonyl oxygen atoms of DNA/RNA nucleobases promotes ultrafast intersystem crossing and near-unity triplet yields that are being used for photodynamic therapy and structural-biology applications. Replacement of sulfur with selenium or tellurium should significantly red-shift the absorption spectra of the nucleobases without sacrificing the high triplet yields. Consequently, selenium/tellurium-substituted nucleobases are thought to facilitate treatment of deeper tissue carcinomas relative to the sulfur-substituted analogues, but their photodynamics are yet unexplored. In this contribution, the photochemical relaxation mechanism of 6-selenoguanine is elucidated and compared to that of the 6-thioguanine prodrug. Selenium substitution leads to a remarkable enhancement of the intersystem crossing lifetime both to and from the triplet manifold, resulting in an efficiently populated, yet short-lived triplet state. Surprisingly, the rate of triplet decay in 6-selenoguanine increases by 835-fold compared to that in 6-thioguanine. This appears to be an extreme manifestation of the classical heavy-atom effect in organic photochemistry, which challenges conventional wisdom.