Application of Porphyrins in Antibacterial Photodynamic Therapy

Abstract

Antibiotics are commonly used to control, treat, or prevent bacterial infections, however bacterial resistance to all known classes of traditional antibiotics has greatly increased in the past years especially in hospitals rendering certain therapies ineffective. To limit this emerging public health problem, there is a need to develop non-incursive, non-toxic, and new antimicrobial techniques that act more effectively and quicker than the current antibiotics. One of these effective techniques is antibacterial photodynamic therapy (aPDT). This review focuses on the application of porphyrins in the photo-inactivation of bacteria. Mechanisms of bacterial resistance and some of the current ‘greener’ methods of synthesis of meso-phenyl porphyrins are discussed. In addition, significance and limitations of aPDT are also discussed. Furthermore, we also elaborate on the current clinical applications and the future perspectives and directions of this non-antibiotic therapeutic strategy in combating infectious diseases.

Protonation of meso-Tetraphenylporphyrin and Its β-Functionalized Derivatives by Photogenerators of Acidity in Toluene and Polymer Film

“…[32,33] In addition, results of this study are of interest for biochemical applications, since protonated forms of porphyrins are widely studied in antibacterial photodynamic therapy. [34][35][36]…”

Recent advances in theranostic agents based on natural products for photodynamic and sonodynamic therapy

“…Other examples are described in reviews and literatures therein. 29,30,[33][34][35][36] Metal-organic frame structure (MOFs) can be applied for the design of multifunctional theranostic agents because of their unique material properties. Zheng et al synthesized MOFs with a photoactive porous-organic polymer (POP) nanocomposite (HUC-PEG) to improve the phototherapy effect of porphyrin.…”

Ethyne Functionalized Meso-Phenothiazinyl-Phenyl-Porphyrins: Synthesis and Optical Properties of Free Base Versus Protonated Species

“…A large variety of scientific articles describing tetrapyrrolic compounds and their metal derivatives were stated in the literature, most of them documenting synthetic procedures [ 1 , 2 ], chemical, photophysical properties and applications as photosensitizers in photodynamic therapy [ 3 , 4 ] including two-photon excitation [ 5 ], active materials for organic solar cells [ 6 , 7 ] or light emitting diodes [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], chemical/biosensors [ 11 , 12 , 13 ] and biologically active compounds [ 14 , 15 ]. The UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy was widely applied as a suitable analytical procedure for the investigation of the electronic structure of the porphyrins characterized by typical absorption and fluorescence emission bands situated in the visible region (Soret-band positioned at about 350–500 nm generally with molar absorptivity of 10 5 M −1 cm −1 , and up to four Q-bands at 500–750 nm with lower intensities) closely associated with electronic transitions influenced by the aromatic core electronic distribution [ 14 , 16 ].…”