Study of the novel phtalocyanines for the vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy of tumors

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Biochemical Sciences Candidate: Petra Brázdová Supervisor: Mgr. Miloslav Macháček Title of diploma thesis: Study of the novel phthalocyanines for the vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy of tumors Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in developed countries, therefore a big effort is devoted on research of novel anticancer drugs. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is currently a well-established method in this area, but targeting its effect on tumor vasculature has not been considered until recently. In comparison with PDT, vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy (VTP) takes the advantage of a much shorter interval between administration of the photosensitizer (PS) and irradiation (drug-light interval) and thus turning the effect of cytotoxic agents to tumor vasculature. It is intended to disrupt the oxygen and nutrients supply to malignant cells and thus cause their damage and death. Aim of this work is to evaluate the efficacy of newly synthesized PSs from the group of phthalocyanines and azaphthalocyanines using the VTP protocol under in vitro conditions. The PSs used in this study have been investigated recently with classical PDT protocol, in which they have demonstrated very promising activity against tumor cells..