Investigation of chloro-substituted symmetric porphyrins for use in photodynamic therapy

This work focuses on the synthesis of porphyrins and their investigation for use as photosensitizers in photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT). The 5-10,15,20-(1-chloro-6-methoxy-3,4-dihydronaphthalene) porphyrin ( CMDP ) was synthesized and metalated with Zn and In. The photophysical properties of the complexes were investigated; they exhibited good singlet oxygen quantum yields. The PDT and PACT results suggest that the complexes can be candidates for use as photosensitizers for PDT not for PACT. ZnCMDP showed the best PDT activity with cell viability as low as 25.2% and an IC 50 value <5 μM against the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells.