Session: Undergraduate Research Posters: Medicinal Chemistry:

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a treatment modality for various illnesses including some types of cancer. This research focused on synthesizing novel water-soluble porphyrin compounds for use as photosensitive agents in PDT. The outside of the porphyrin core can be modified with various substituents to assist with water-solubility and cytotoxicity. In this research, the core of 5, 10, 15, 20-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin, H₂TPPC, was modified with the attachment of L-threoninol to create the novel H₂TPP-LT. The core was also modified with tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane, TRIS, to synthesize H₂TPP-TRIS. Additionally, ZnTPPC was modified using TRIS to form the novel ZnTPP-TRIS. Each compound was filtered prior to purification by column chromatography using both Sephadex LH-20 and Sephadex G-50. Additionally, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), infrared (IR), and UV-vis spectroscopies (UV-vis) were used to characterize each compound. Purity of the final products was determined using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Finally, compounds were tested using MTT assays to determine cell viability in both light and dark conditions on an A549 non-small cell lung cancer cell line.

Kayla R. Whittington

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