Synthesis and anticancer activity of water soluble porphyrin

As resistance to traditional chemotherapies increases, there is a concurrent need for novel therapies. Much work has been devoted the development of gold(III) treatments, however much of this work has been hampered by the propensity of gold(III) to reduce to gold(I) under physiological conditions. Porphyrins have previously been used to stabilize reactive metals, due to being a strongly chelating multi-dentate ligand. Although this stabilization is offset by poor solubility in aqueous or physiological conditions. Synthesis of porphyrins with multiple hydroxyl substituents has greatly increased the aqueous solubility of the ligand, and any metals chelated to it. By combining this water soluble porphyrin with gold(III) was have synthesized novel gold(III) complex. In this work we report the synthesis and anticancer activity of this gold(III) complex.