Differential effects of aminochlorin derivatives on the phagocytic and inflammatory potentials of mammalian macrophages.

Chlorin derivatives have been known for their biological activities. Especially due to their advanced electron transfer capacity they have been used as photodynamic therapy agent both at clinical and laboratory scales. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) against cancer or an infectious disease aims the development of less side effect on the patient since the activation of the inert drug molecule will start only after the light treatment. In order to increase our library of photodynamic therapy agents, we generated a set of chlorin derivatives and tested their PDT potential on the immune system cells; macrophages. Macrophages are known for their primary role as an inflammatory cell type that have been found in the inflamed tissues of the patients with autoimmune and inflammatory disorders as well as in the tumor environment as tumor associated macrophages. Our derivatives had anti-inflammatory PDT potential in the presence of a danger mimic but they lacked immunostimulatory effect. Moreover, these cells' ability to eliminate an infectious agent or present the danger molecules to the other immune cells were tested by phagocytosis assay in the presence of our compounds. Chlorin derivatives were able to differentially regulate the phagocytic activity of the mammalian macrophages.