Biomedical Application of Porphyrin-Based Amphiphiles and Their Self-Assembled Nanomaterials

Abstract

Porphyrins have been vastly explored and applied in many cutting-edge fields with plenty of encouraging achievements because of their excellent properties. As important derivatives of porphyrins, porphyrin-based amphiphiles (PBAs) not only maintain the advanced properties of porphyrins (catalysis, imaging, and energy transfer) but also possess self-assembly and encapsulation capability in aqueous solution. Accordingly, PBAs and their self-assembles have had important roles in diagnosing and treating tumors and inflammation lesions in vivo, but not limited to these. In this article, we introduce the research progress of PBAs, including their constitution, structure design strategies, and performances in tumor and inflammation lesion diagnosis and treatments. On that basis, the defects of synthesized PBAs during their application and the possible effective strategies to overcome the limitations are also proposed. Finally, perspectives on PBAs exploration are updated based on our knowledge. We hope this review will bring researchers from various domains insights about PBAs.

Enhancing Targeted Photodynamic Therapy: Star-Shaped Glycopolymeric Photosensitizers for Improved Selectivity and Efficacy

“…Porphyrins encapsulated in nanocarriers are prone to diffusing from the nanocarrier to the surrounding medium during long-term drug storage and in vivo circulation, presenting a risk of diminishing effectiveness and potential side effects. Chemical modification of porphyrins into initiators or monomers for controlled/living radical polymerization, such as random, block, and star polymers, allows for preserving the excellent properties of porphyrins by enhancing stability and avoiding ACQ. , Star-shaped polymers possess a branched structure that imparts them with distinctive physical properties, as opposed to linear copolymers such as random and block copolymers .…”

Porphyrins—valuable pigments of life

“…This led to the development of porphyrin-based compounds as theragnostic agents in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), drug delivery and photodynamic cancer therapy (Stender et al, 2013;Cheng et al, 2014;Hammerer et al, 2014;Dong et al, 2017). Generally, porphyrins are used in the fields of disease treatment and in vivo diagnosis (Han et al, 2023). Regarding disease treatment, porphyrins can effectively treat inflammation and tumors since are able to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) namely, singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ), hydroxyl and superoxide radicals, and hydrogen peroxide (Bustos et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2021).…”