Design, synthesis and investigation of single oxygen generation capacity of a new photosensitive molecule for photodynamic therapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a cancer treatment method that takes place in the presence of a photosensitive substance (photosensitizer), light and oxygen molecule. It is based on the principle of destroying the tumor by activating the oxygen molecule (single state) by giving its energy to the oxygen in the environment (which is in the triplet state when unexcited) by stimulating it with light of the wavelength that the photosensitizer absorbs, after it accumulates in the tumor tissue with the application of the photosensitizer. In this thesis, we synthesized a new photosensitive substance by derivatizing boron 2-(2'-pyridyl)imidazole (BOPIM). The photophysical properties and singlet oxygen generation capacity of the BOPIM complex, which does not form aggregates and offers advantages such as large Stokes shift, were investigated. 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran (DPBF) was used as a singlet oxygen trap molecule. DPBF after stimulation of the substance is presented with absorbance change graphs. When the BOPIM molecule was examined in the presence of light, it showed promising results for further studies with its efficient singlet oxygen production. Studies conducted in the dark have shown that it does not produce singlet oxygen and does not have a toxic effect.