A combination of techniques to evaluate photodynamic efficiency of photosensitizers

Photodynamic therapy, used mainly for cancer treatment and microorganisms inactivation, is based on production of reactive oxygen species by light irradiation of a sensitizer. Hematoporphyrin derivatives as Photofrin® (PF), Photogem® (PG) and Photosan® (PF), and chlorin-e6-derivatives as Photodithazine® (PZ), have suitable sensitizing properties. The present study provides a way to make a fast previous evaluation of photosensitizers efficacy by a combination of techniques: a) use of bovine serum albumin and uric acid as chemical dosimeters; b) photo-hemolysis of red blood cells used as a cell membrane interaction model, and c) octanol/phosphate buffer partition to assess the relative lipophilicity of the compounds. The results suggest the photodynamic efficient ranking: PZ > PG ≥ PF > PS. These results agree with the cytotoxicity of the photosensitizers as well as to chromatographic separation of the HpDs, both performed in our group, showing that the more lipophilic is the dye, the more acute is the damage to the RBC membrane and the oxidation of indol, which is immersed in the hydrophobic region of albumin