The brief history of photodynamic therapy (PDT) research has been focused on photosensitizers (PSs) and light delivery was introduced recently. The appropriate PSs were developed from the first generation PS Photofrin (QLT) to the second (chlorins or bacteriochlorins derivatives) and third (conjugated PSs on carrier) generations PSs to overcome undesired disadvantages, and to increase selective tumor accumulation and excellent targeting. For the synthesis of new chlorin PSs chlorophyll a is isolated from natural plants or algae, and converted to methyl pheophorbide a (MPa) as an important starting material for further synthesis. MPa has various active functional groups easily modified for the preparation of different kinds of PSs, such as methyl pyropheophorbide a, purpurin-18, purpurinimide, and chlorin e6 derivatives. Combination therapy, such as chemotherapy and photothermal therapy with PDT, is shortly described here. Advanced light delivery system is shown to establish successful clinical applications of PDT. Phtodynamic efficiency of the PSs with light delivery was investigated in vitro and/or in vivo.

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A comparative study of the photodynamic and antioxidant activities of methyl pheophorbide-a (MPa, 1) and its transition metal(II) complexes (2-5) is described. Four transition metal complexes (palladium(II): 2, zinc(II): 3, cobalt(II): 4 and copper(II): 5) of MPa were prepared by reaction between the corresponding transition metal and 1, respectively, and were characterized by 1 H-NMR and UV-vis spectroscopic and mass spectrometric analyses. In vitro results show a photodynamic therapy (PDT) efficacy with A549 cells might be attributed to a heavy atom effect of the transition metal complexes of MPa. Among them, 4 and 5 showed higher photodynamic activity than that of 1 at the concentration of 5 µM at 24 h incubation after photoirradiation. The images of morphological change for 2-5 show evidence for the PDT effect with A549 cells. And the all transition metal complexes of MPa showed higher antioxidant activity than that of MPa, in which 4 showed the highest antioxidant activity.

An o-phenylenevinylene-bridged tetrapyrrolic macrocycle (2) was synthesized by means of a Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reaction between benzylbisphosphonate and SEM-protected diformylpyrrole, followed by deprotection of the SEM groups. This conformationally flexible tetrapyrrole can be considered as an expanded calix[4]pyrrole analogue, which acts as a receptor for the chloride and bromide anions in THF-d8, but undergoes deprotonation upon exposure to the fluoride anion.

The 4:1 supramolecular complexed ionic salt between pyridinium chlorin and polyanionic [α-SiMo12O40](4-) exhibits significantly enhanced photodynamic activity against A549 cell lines because of increased singlet oxygen photogeneration through high cellular penetration and localization of the chlorin molecules on the ionic salt into the cancer cell. Confocal laser scanning microscopy images clearly represent a higher uptake and photodynamic effect of this supramolecular complex corresponding to the lower IC50 value compared to the free chlorin.