Research Projects

Cancer is among the deadliest diseases in the world, and its treatment is still a challenging task. Traditional cancer treatments such as surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy results in serious side effects caused by the loss of normal organ function. Therefore, drug development with high therapeutic efficacy and low toxicity is desirable for cancer ablation. Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) consists of essential components including photosensitizer, oxygen, and light at specific wavelengths is emerging as a promising non-invasive treatment for cancer and related diseases. Owing to distinct photo-physical properties and efficacy of chlorophyll-a related porphyrins, namely verteporfin, temoporfin, and talaporfin, are among the clinically approved second-generation photosensitizers (PSs) for cancer treatment. For further improvement and clinical usefulness, search for PSs with enhanced selectivity towards tumors, good water solubility, avoiding aggregation, and displaying minimal dark cytotoxicity is desirable. The present proposal efforts to develop potent and selective photosensitizers with high PDT efficiency. It involves syntheses of chlorophyll-a derived conjugates followed by the development of their nano-formulations. With the usefulness of chlorophyll-based porphyrinoids in cancer treatment and synergistic effects of conjugation strategy, the studies of novel chlorophyll-a derived photosensitizers, and their new formulations will provide new therapeutic modality as well as nanomedicine of the same for effective clinical translation thus providing a quantum leap in the area of cancer treatment using photodynamic therapy.