Synthesis and characterization of xanthene derivatives for application as photosensitizers in photodynamic therapy
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a type of therapeutic modality used in the treatment of various types of cancer, including head and neck, and microbial infections. In general terms, Photodynamic Therapy involves three variants for its action: i) the application of an active principle, called photosensitizer (PS), ii) Light and iii) oxygen present in the medium. The incidence of light promotes the excitation of the FS to an excited energetic state that, by transferring energy and/or electrons to the oxygen molecules around it, generates a complex mixture of reactive species, species that react with biomolecules causing irreparable cellular damage. Among the potential photosensitizers, the Xanthenes class stands out, a class of dye that presents a good yield of generation of reactive oxygen species under irradiation with adequate wavelength. Despite its proven efficiency as a photosensitizer, many studies are limited to describing the action of commercial xanthenes such as Fluorescein (FSC), Rose Bengal (RB), Erythrosine (ES) and Eosin (ESY), not having many advances related to other xanthenes with modifications in their structure. In this work we performed the synthesis of 16 xanthenes with the objective of studying their photophysical properties and applying them in PDT. The synthesized compounds were purified and characterized by NMR-1H and 13C techniques, of which we can mention the synthesis of Fluorescein, 3´,4´,5´,6´-tetrabromo-fluorescein, 3´,4´,5´, 6´-tetrachloro-fluorescein, 3´,4´,5´,6´-tetrafluor-fluorescein, 4´,5´, -dichloro-fluorescein, 4´(5´)-nitro-fluorescein, 2´(3´ )-nitro-fluorescein, 2,7-dicarboxy-fluorescein, dihydro-fluorescein, 4´(5´)-carboxy-fluorescein, 3´(4´)-tert-butyl-fluorescein, naphtha-fluorescein, and the ethyl esters , isopropyl, n-butyl and isobutyl of carboxy-fluorescein. The development of a methodology for separating the isomers of carboxy-fluorescein esters using the preparative HPLC system is highlighted.