Four new hydroporphyrins [the o, m and p isomers of 5,10,15,20-tetra(hydroxyphenyl)chlorin and 5,10,15,20-tetra(m-hydroxyphenyl)bacteriochlorin] related to the tetra(hydroxyphenyl)porphyrins have been prepared. They show the expected strong absorption bands in the red region of the visible spectrum and are found to be very effective tumour photosensitizers.

Substituted benzaldehydes have been designed to bind preferentially to the oxy conformation of human haemoglobin at a site between the amino terminal residues of the α‐subunits. Such compounds should stabilize the oxygenated form of haemoglobin and thereby increase its oxygen affinity. The compounds produce the expected effect, left‐shifting the oxygen saturation curve of dilute haemoglobin solutions and of whole blood, although the binding pattern to haemoglobin is more complex than envisaged by the design hypothesis. The predicted best compound is also a potent inhibitor, at low oxygen pressure, of the sickling of erythrocytes from patients homozygous for sickle cell disease, and may prove to be a clinically useful anti‐sickling agent.

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Summary We compared para-, meta-and ortho-isomers of meso-tetra(hydroxyphenyl)porphyrin (p-, m-and o-THPP) and the potassium salt of the para compound (K-p-THPP) with haematoporphyrin derivative (HpD) and Photofrin II in their ability to sensitise tumours, skin and brain to light. HpD and Photofrin II induced modest tumour photosensitisation at the cost of substantial skin and brain sensitisation. At doses low enough to keep sensitisation of these normal tissues within acceptable limits, tumour sensitisation was sufficient to give necrosis only 2mm deep after exposure to 1OJcm-2 light.In contrast, doses of p-THPP, K-p-THPP and m-THPP that produced skin and brain sensitivity within acceptable limits sensitised tumours enough to give 4-9mm necrosis after OJCcm-2 light. m-THPP was, on a molar basis, about 25-30 times as potent as HpD and Photofrin II in sensitising tumours. o-THPP was also a potent tumour photosensitiser, but induced a prohibitive degree of skin photosensitivity even at low doses.It is unlikely that these differences in relative selectivity are due to differences in such photophysical parameters as optimum activating wavelength (which would affect tissue penetration by light), or light absorption, and physicochemical factors that determine tissue localisation may be involved.The high tumour sensitising potency and favourable tissue selectivity of m-THPP, p-THPP and K-p-THPP make them promising candidates for clinical tumour phototherapy.

A propidium iodide (P1) staining procedure is described in which 50 pg/mI P1 in 102 M Tris, pH 7.0, with 5 mM incubation time at 37#{176}Cmust be doubled to obtain the

The overall prognosis of bladder cancer has not been improved over the last 30 years and therefore, there is a great medical need to develop novel diagnosis and therapy approaches for bladder cancer. We developed a multifunctional nanoporphyrin platform that was coated with a bladder cancer-specific ligand named PLZ4. PLZ4-nanoporphyrin (PNP) integrates photodynamic diagnosis, image-guided photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy and targeted chemotherapy in a single procedure. PNPs are spherical, relatively small (around 23 nm), and have the ability to preferably emit fluorescence/heat/reactive oxygen species upon illumination with near infrared light. Doxorubicin (DOX) loaded PNPs possess slower drug release and dramatically longer systemic circulation time compared to free DOX. The fluorescence signal of PNPs efficiently and selectively increased in bladder cancer cells but not normal urothelial cells in vitro and in an orthotopic patient derived bladder cancer xenograft (PDX) models, indicating their great potential for photodynamic diagnosis. Photodynamic therapy with PNPs was significantly more potent than 5-aminolevulinic acid, and eliminated orthotopic PDX bladder cancers after intravesical treatment. Image-guided photodynamic and photothermal therapies synergized with targeted chemotherapy of DOX and significantly prolonged overall survival of mice carrying PDXs. In conclusion, this uniquely engineered targeting PNP selectively targeted tumor cells for photodynamic diagnosis, and served as effective triple-modality (photodynamic/photothermal/chemo) therapeutic agents against bladder cancers. This platform can be easily adapted to individualized medicine in a clinical setting and has tremendous potential to improve the management of bladder cancer in the clinic.

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