Solution properties and photonuclease activity of cationic bis-porphyrins linked with a series of aliphatic diamines

The development of efficient photo-induced DNA cleavage agents has been of particular interest for biomedical applications such as cancer photodynamic therapy (PDT). Toward this objective, we synthesized a series of cationic bis-porphyrins with various lengths of diamino alkyl linkage, N,N'-bis[4-[10,15,20-tris(1-methylpyridinium-4-yl)porphyrin-5-yl]benzoyl]oligomethylenediamine hexaiodide. They were expected to show more efficient photocleavage of DNA than unichromophore meso-tetrakis(4-N-methylpyridiniumyl)porphine (TMPyP), which is well known to cleave DNA effectively on illumination. The cationic bis-porphyrins were found to self-aggregate in aqueous solution, and the aggregation property was accounted for by the formation of an intermolecular dimer. Because conservative-type circular dichroism spectra of the bis-porphyrins were induced in the Soret region on binding to calf thymus DNA, we assigned their binding mode to outside self-stacking on the DNA surface. Their photonuclease activity using plasmid DNA decreased as the number of their linker hydrocarbons increased, and was well correlated with their tendency for dimerization. The inhibitory effect of azide anion, N3-, and the enhancement effect of D2O suggest that singlet oxygen was probably involved in the photocleavage of DNA.