Effects of 2,3-dihydrophthalazine-1,4-dion unit on therapeutic properties of organic fluorescent dyes

Cancer is a group of diseases that can spread to other parts of the body and affect almost all organs. Therefore, it is a very serious health problem and brings heavy social and economic burdens to societies all over the world. Moreover, the effectiveness of many of the current clinical methods, such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immune therapy, are not at the desired level due to the specific disadvantages of each method. Consequently, enormous effort has been devoted to develop effective methods and drugs that can be used in cancer treatment worldwide. In particular, research has focused on the development of next-generation materials that can function as theranostics and are suitable for combinatorial therapies. In this thesis, rational design, synthesis and characterization of organic compounds that will enable cancer treatment are described. The design was rationalized by combination of two distinct units. The first unit is sensitive to reactive oxygen species whereas the second one consists of fluorescent organic dyes which are suitable for bioimaging, photodynamic therapy, and/or photothermal therapy with their superior properties. The structures of the synthesized fluorescent materials were elucidated by spectroscopic methods and their potential as photosensitizers was determined. The obtained data show that the designed structures can function as theranostic agents and can be used as new generation materials suitable for combinatorial therapies.