Psoralens are medicinal photosensitizing furocoumarins which are used in photochemotherapy and photoimmunotherapy of dermatoses. Psoralen photooxidation products may be involved in therapeutic effects, but the possible mechanisms of their action remain unclear. The study was aimed to assess the prospective pharmacological effects and mechanisms of activity for six previously identified ortho–hydroxyformyl-containing psoralen photooxidation products and their cycloadducts with aminothiols, as well as for structurally similar compounds (furocoumaric acid and tucaresol). Chemoinformatic analysis of the prospective pharmacological effects and mechanisms of action of these compounds was performed using the PASS and PharmaExpert software. The predicted pharmacological effects partially confirmed by previous studies highlight the possible involvement of psoralen photooxidation products in the effects of PUVA therapy or photopheresis during the course of dermatoses and proliferative disorders treatment. A broad spectrum of pharmacological effects found for furocoumaric acid and cycloadducts of coumarinic and benzofuranic photoproducts of psoralen with cysteine and homocysteine appoints new directions of research relating to therapeutic use of psoralens.
Contemporary concepts on a possible mechanism of erythrocyte hemolysis induced by photooxidized psoralen - the medicinal photosensitizing furocoumarin - are reviewed. The hypothesis on the mechanochemical mechanism of hemolysis is considered in view of recent data on photoinduced aggregation in photooxidized psoralen solutions. Appropriate chemical structures of photoproduct hemolysins and aggregating photoproducts are discussed.
Photooxidized psoralen solutions possess a variety of biological effects, which implementation mechanism may presumably involve hydroperoxides. Here, the hydroperoxide content in photooxidized psoralen solutions was assessed using photometric FOX assay (from Ferrous Oxidation + Xylenol Orange). FOX reagent with 10× content of Xylenol Orange, modified for quantitative analysis of up to 50 μM of hydroperoxides in aqueous phase was used in experiments. During photooxidation of 0.1 mM psoralen in phosphate buffer solution, hydroperoxide production increases with dose of UVA irradiation (~2.5 μM eq. of H2O2 for dose of 252 kJ/m2 and ~11 μM eq. of H2O2 for dose of 1512 kJ/m2) and reaches ~16.5 μM eq. of H2O2 at the highest dose investigated (3024 kJ/m2). A comparison of kinetics of psoralen photolysis and hydroperoxide generation allows us to suggest that generation of hydroperoxide results from the secondary photochemical processes involving psoralen photoproducts, presumably from photoinduced autooxidation of aldehydic photoproducts of psoralen.
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