Fig. 5.

Significantly reduced cellular toxicity of the oligothiophene-HSA complexes. a, b Precultured A549 cells were separately treated with 4T, 1P3T, Me1P3T and 4T-HSA, 1P3T-HSA, Me1P3T-HSA, respectively, at various concentrations for 24 h and analyzed in a CellTiter-Glo Luminescent Cell Viability Assay. For the free oligothiophenes, solubility of the compounds limits the test to ≤ 20 µM. The intensity of luminescence directly correlates to the amount of living cells. Data presented were measured in independent triplicates. In particular, a significant toxicity difference was observed between Me1P3T (IC₅₀, 3.45 µM) and Me1P3T-HSA (IC₅₀, >100 µM). The data represented as mean ± SEM, n = 3