Photodynamic therapy artificial

Metalloporphyrins and related compounds continue to attract attention as photosensitizers and as building blocks for construction of artificial lightharvesting arrays. The photophysical properties of several structurally modified porphyrins have been measured with a view to identifying new sensitizers for use in photodynamic therapy. The triplet state properties of porphyrins adsorbed onto the outer surface of vesicles have been describedand the fluorescence spectral properties of some amphiphilic porphyrins have been recorded. Similar studies have been carried out with halogenated tetraar-... 

The p>orphyiins have attracted considerable attention because are ubiquitous in natural systems and have prosp>ective applications in mimicking enzymes, catalytic reactions, photodynamic therapy, molecular electronic devices and conversion of solar energy. In particular, munerous p>orphyrins based artificial light-harvesting antennae, and donor acceptor dyads and triads have been prepared and tested to improve our understanding of the photochemical aspect of natural photosynthesis. 

The interaction of artificial metal ions/complexes with peptides/proteins [11], nucleic acids/DNA [12,13], enzymes [14], steroids [15] and carbohydrates [16] forms a bridge between natural and artificial macromolecular metal complexes. Biometal-organie chemistry concentrates on such complexes [17]. The reason for the increasing interest in this field lies in medical applications of metal complexes (cancer, photodynamic therapy of cancer, immunoassays, fluorescence markers, enantioselective catalysis, template orientated synthesis of peptides, etc.). Figure 2-4 presents an overview of metals in medicine [18]. Some examples are given below. 

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