Stephanie Nino-Suastegui | 2025 I.S. Symposium

Name: Stephanie Nino-Suastegui
Title: Evaluating the Potential of Cationic Porphyrins as Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Anticancer Therapy
Major: Chemistry
Advisors: Mostafa Abdelaziz; Paul A. Bonvallet

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, requiring an ongoing search for treatment options. Multiple cancer treatments have been introduced throughout the years, and photodynamic therapy has become a promising treatment by offering a less invasive and more targeted approach. The efficiency of photodynamic therapy is highly influenced by the efficiency of the photosensitizers, one of its main components. These light-absorbing compounds have the potential to generate reactive oxygen species, such as singlet oxygen that induce cellular death. A major compound that has been studied as a photosensitizer is porphyrin. Modifications to porphyrin compounds have been made to enhance their properties for photodynamic therapy and to overcome identified drawbacks, such as hydrophobicity and aggregation caused by π-π stacking. To overcome these drawbacks, a cationic porphyrin is synthesized from tetra(2-pyridyl) porphyrin or tetra(4-pyridyl) porphyrin and anticancer drugs. That target water-soluble cationic porphyrin is expected to have reduced aggregation. Additionally, the cytotoxic effect is enhanced as a result of the synergistic photodynamic effect of porphyrin and the regular mechanism of anticancer drug. The photophysical properties of the target compound, such as UV-Vis absorption, triplet excited state lifetime, fluorescence quantum yield, and singlet oxygen generation quantum yield will be assessed and compared to porphyrin standards.

Posted in Symposium 2025 on May 1, 2025.