Development of Novel Sugar Linked Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy

Sugar-linked porphyrin and chlorin compounds have been synthesized. Phototoxicity of these compounds against the HeLa cell line was also examined. For the porphyrin derivatives, the higher activity was observed for a derivative having four OH-protected sugar moieties. For the chlorin derivatives, OH-unprotected free-base derivatives were generally effective. Singlet oxygen producing ability were examined to evaluate the activity on photodynamic therapy of the compounds.