Ring-Fused Diphenylchlorins as Potent Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy Applications: In Vitro Tumor Cell Biology and in Vivo Chick Embryo Chorioallantoic Membrane Studies

Bruno F O Nascimento; Mafalda Laranjo; Nelson A M Pereira; João Dias-Ferreira; Marta Piñeiro; Maria Filomena Botelho; Teresa M V D Pinho E Melo

doi:10.1021/acsomega.9b01865

Ring-Fused Diphenylchlorins as Potent Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy Applications: In Vitro Tumor Cell Biology and in Vivo Chick Embryo Chorioallantoic Membrane Studies

ACS Omega. 2019 Oct 9;4(17):17244-17250. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b01865. eCollection 2019 Oct 22.

Authors

Bruno F O Nascimento¹, Mafalda Laranjo^{2

2}, Nelson A M Pereira¹, João Dias-Ferreira², Marta Piñeiro¹, Maria Filomena Botelho^{2

2}, Teresa M V D Pinho E Melo¹

Affiliations

¹ CQC and Department of Chemistry, University of Coimbra, 3004-535 Coimbra, Portugal.
² Biophysics Institute and Institute for Clinical and Biomedical Research (iCBR), area of Environment Genetics and Oncobiology (CIMAGO), Faculty of Medicine and CNC.IBILI Consortium, University of Coimbra, 3004-548 Coimbra, Portugal.

Abstract

Ring-fused diphenylchlorins as potent low-dose photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy of bladder carcinoma and esophageal adenocarcinoma are described. All studied molecules were very active against HT1376 urinary bladder carcinoma and OE19 esophageal adenocarcinoma cell lines, showing IC₅₀ values below 50 nM. The in vivo evaluation of the more promising photosensitizer, using an OE19 tumor/chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane model, showed a tumor weight regression of 33% with a single photodynamic therapy treatment with the photosensitizer dose as low as 37 ng/embryo.