Synthesis of some new porphyrins and their metalloderivatives as potential sensitizers in photo-dynamic therapy

Porphyrins are a ubiquitous large class of naturally occurring macrocyclic compounds with many significant biological representatives comprising heme and chlorophyll. Some novel adaptable methods for the synthesis of free-based porphyrins as promising sensitizers for the use in photo-dynamic therapy by the virtue of their known tumor affinity, low dark cytotoxicity, and easy synthesis in good to high yields have already been discussed. In the present study, two new porphyrins including TAPFA, as a novel folic acid targeted porphyrin sensitizer, and TAP-Schiff base, as a novel sensitizer with better light absorption, were prepared for the first time and their structures were confirmed by (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopy as well as CHNS analysis. The compounds were metalized with Zn(II) and Fe(II) metal ions to study how the metal ions can improve the light absorption wavelength and their water solubility. The structures of metalized compounds were also confirmed by FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopy.