Date of Award
5-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Biology
First Reader
Dr. Joseph Bradshaw
Second Reader
Dr. Tim Knight
Third Reader
Professor Tiffany Eurich
Abstract
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a treatment for a wide display of diseases, including cancer, that has become gradually widespread. The procedure requires the usage of photosynthesizing agents, which are activated in the presence of light. One quite successful photodynamic therapy agent is an aromatic structure made up of four pyrrole rings called a porphyrin. This research focused on producing the water-soluble porphyrins, H2TPP-3-PEG-OH and H2TPP-PiperMe-OH, through the attachment of the starting porphyrin, H2TPPC, with 3-polyethyleneglycol and 3-piperidinemethanol, respectively. The novel, water-soluble agent was purified and characterized by infrared spectroscopy (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), and UV-vis spectroscopy. Purity was determined using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). To find the cytotoxicity level of novel PDT porphyrins, H2TPP-3-PEG-OG and H2TPP-3-PiperMe-OH, the agents were conditionally tested in the presence and absence of light, using MTT assay on MDA-MB-231 triple negative breast cancer cells.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Lackey, Victoria, "Treating Breast Cancer with Light: The Creation of Two Photodynamic Therapy Agents" (2018). Honors Theses. 599.
https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses/599