Carolina dos Santos Vinagreiro
University of Coimbra Rua Larga, Portugal
Title: Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy as a promising tool to overcome antibiotic resistance
Biography
Biography: Carolina dos Santos Vinagreiro
Abstract
The development of new molecular entities capable of promoting the inactivation of bacteria without developing drug resistance depends on finding alternative mechanisms of action for antibiotics. Photodynamic Inactivation of microorganisms (PDI) is emerging as an alternative to classical antibiotics because PDI is not associated with the development of microorganism resistance after treatment. This work presents new methods of synthesis of new chemical entities based on tetrapyrrolic macrocycles that can potentially target bacteria and act both as bacteriostatic and photosensitizing agents. Additionally, this work presents the fundamental photophysical assessment of the new photosensitizers, namely in terms of their electronic absorptions, singlet oxygen quantum yields and reactive oxygen species generation. The cytotoxicity of selected photosensitizers and its antibacterial activity assays will be presented. The presentation will discuss the future perspective of PDI as a promising approach for overcoming antibiotic resistance.