Synthesis and biological activity of novel platinum(II) complexes of glutamate tethered to hydrophilic hematoporphyrin derivatives

Development and application of nanomaterials, nanotechnology and nanomedicine for treating hematological malignancies

Hematologic malignancies (HMs) pose a serious threat to patients' health and life, and the five-year overall survival of HMs remains low. The lack of understanding of the pathogenesis and the complex clinical symptoms brings immense challenges to the diagnosis and treatment of HMs. Traditional therapeutic strategies for HMs include radiotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Although immunotherapy and cell therapy have made considerable progress in the last decade, nearly half of patients still relapse or suffer from drug resistance. Recently, studies have emerged that nanomaterials, nanotechnology and nanomedicine show great promise in cancer therapy by enhancing drug targeting, reducing toxicity and side effects and boosting the immune response to promote durable immunological memory. In this review, we summarized the strategies of recently developed nanomaterials, nanotechnology and nanomedicines against HMs and then proposed emerging strategies for the future designment of nanomedicines to treat HMs based on urgent clinical needs and technological progress.

Potential Application of Photosensitizers With High-Z Elements for Synergic Cancer Therapy

The presence of heavy elements in photosensitizers (PS) strongly influences their electronic and photophysical properties, and hence, conjugation of PS with a suitable element is regarded as a potential strategy to improve their photodynamic properties. Moreover, PS conjugated to metal ion or metal complex and heavy atoms such as halogen have attracted considerable attention as promising agents for multimodal or synergistic cancer therapy. These tetrapyrrole compounds depending on the type and nature of the inorganic elements have been explored for photodynamic therapy (PDT), chemotherapy, X-ray photon activation therapy (PAT), and radiotherapy. Particularly, the combination of metal-based PS and X-ray irradiation has been investigated as a promising novel approach for treating deep-seated tumors, which in the case of PDT is a major limitation due to low light penetration in tissue. This review will summarize the present status of evidence on the effect of insertion of metal or halogen on the photophysical properties of PS and the effectiveness of various metal and halogenated PS investigated for PDT, chemotherapy, and PAT as mono and/or combination therapy.

Porphyrin/Chlorin Derivatives as Promising Molecules for Therapy of Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death. The demand for new therapeutic approaches has increased attention paid toward therapies with high targeting efficiency, improved selectivity and few side effects. Porphyrins are powerful molecules with exceptional properties and multifunctional uses, and their special affinity to cancer cells makes them the ligands par excellence for anticancer drugs. Porphyrin derivatives are used as the most important photosensitizers (PSs) for photodynamic therapy (PDT), which is a promising approach for anticancer treatment. Nevertheless, the lack of solubility and selectivity of the large majority of these macrocycles led to the development of different photosensitizer complexes. In addition, targeting agents or nanoparticles were used to increase the efficiency of these macrocycles for PDT applications. On the other hand, gold tetrapyrrolic macrocycles alone showed very interesting chemotherapeutic activity without PDT. In this review, we discuss the most important porphyrin derivatives, alone or associated with other drugs, which have been found effective against CRC, as we describe their modifications and developments through substitutions and delivery systems.

Dual function of lectins — new perspectives in targeted photodynamic therapy

Porphyrins and phthalocyanines are photosensitizers (PS) that are used in clinical imaging, detection of cancer cells and are particularly applied in photodynamic therapy (PDT). Many scientists have been focused on the design of different porphyrin compounds. However, similar to other anti-cancer agents, they cannot selectively recognize tumor tissues. Scientists are seeking new methods to overcome this problem and to find appropriate targeted delivery strategies. Plant lectins are especially suitable molecules for such targeting as they preferentially recognize specific antigens on the glycosylated cancer cells. This review will give more detailed information about the dual function of lectins and their interactions with PSs, which is a new perspective in targeted PDT. The implications and potential applications of such studies will also be discussed.

Synthesis of di-pyropheophorbide-a-platinum(II) complex and the in vitro cytotoxicity against TC-1 tumor cells

This report focuses on the conjugation of a chemotherapeutic drug and photodynamic therapy (PDT) agent with the intention of obtaining an optimal anticancer agent for use in combination cancer treatment. We have used pyropheophorbide-a (PPa) as a PDT agent, which was linked with ethylenediamine using carbodimide/N-hydroxysuccinicimide coupling reagents to obtain a resulting reactive amine group. Next, the free amine-bearing PPa and potassium tetrachloroplatinate (K2PtCl4) were reacted in aqueous solution to obtain PPa-cisplatin complex. Subsequently, the PPa-based platinum complex was characterized through several methods including NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometer and UV absorption spectroscopy and its in vitro cytotoxicity and cellular uptake were evaluated on the TC-1 cancer cell line. The results indicated that the conjugate has a greater cytotoxic effect in the dark than cisplatin, even though its phototoxic effect was slightly lower than that of free photosensitizer; in addition, the cellular uptake of complex at 0.125 and 0.25 μM was higher than that of free photosensitizer.

Spectroscopic and biological approach in the characterization of Cr(III), Mn(II) and Co(II) complexes with a novel hexaazamacrocyclic ligand derived from semicarbazide

Complexes of Cr(III), Mn(II) and Co(II) with a novel 5,7,12,14-tetraphenyl- 1,2,4,8,10,11-hexaazacyclotetradecane-3,9-dione macrocyclic ligand, THTD (L), were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, molar conductance and magnetic susceptibility measurements, as well as by mass, 1H-NMR, IR, electronic and EPR spectral studies. Based on the spectral studies, an octahedral geometry was assigned for the Cr(III), Mn(II) and Co(II) complexes. The ligand and its complexes were screened in vitro against some species of bacteria and plant pathogenic fungi. The metal complexes were found to be more active antimicrobial agents than the free ligand from which they were derived.