A pharmaceutical composition comprising a sulphonated meso-tetraphenyl chlorin as a photosensistizing agent for use in photodynamic therapy

摘要

Photosensitizing agents obtained by reducing a single double bond in the porphyrin macrocycle of a sulphonated meso-tetraphenylporphyrin are described, particularly a disulphonated meso-tetraphenylporphyrin such as TPPS2a. The resulting sulphonated meso-tetraphenyl chlorins include compounds of formula (I) (wherein X is -SO3H; n, p, q and r are each independently 0 or 1; and the sum of n, p, q and r is an integer from 1 to 4, isomers and isomer mixtures thereof. The compounds described and their pharmaceutically acceptable salts have particular use as photosensitizing agents in the photochemical internalization of molecules and in photodynamic therapy.