photosensitizer

Authors and Affiliations:

Patrícia Correia¹, Paula Araújo¹, Joana Marto², Helena Ribeiro², Nuno Mateus¹, Victor de Freitas¹, Joana Oliveira¹ & Iva Fernandes¹

¹REQUIMTE/LAQV, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, s/n, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising method, which has been studied and applied to improve the treatment of several tumour types. PDT combines molecular oxygen, light and a photosensitizer (PS) to generate cytotoxic reactions in cancer cells. The potential of PSs conjugated with biomolecules which will be recognized by antigens or receptors overexpressed in cancer cells prompted us to synthesize and to validate the photodynamic activity of a porphyrin conjugated with human and bovine serum albumins, and the monoclonal antibody anti-CD104.