Photo-CIDNP evidence for charge-transfer interaction between synthetic water-soluble porphyrins and guanine

Abstract Photoreactions of aqueous solutions of synthetic water-soluble porphyrins were studied by the ¹H and ¹³C CIDNP technique. Strong polarizations, which were very sensitive to the presence of added acid, were observed on the cationic porphyrins (TMePyPH₂-TAPPH₂) when irradiated through continuous UV-visible light. They resulted from the reverse electron transfer between the semi-oxidized and the semi-reduced species of the derivative. When the experiments were carried out in the presence of nucleobases, guanine (and its derivatives) was the only residue that was polarized. This is thoroughly interpreted in terms of a reversible electron transfer reaction leading to guanine photooxidation by the porphyrin excited triplet state. It was shown to be drastically pH-dependent and was correlated to the redox potential of the porphyrin. It was not affected by the incident wavelength. The reaction proceeded through the intermediate formation of the correlated radical-ion pair: porphyrin radical anion-guanine radical cation. This study suggested that a Type I (free radical) reaction could be one of the primary processes in DNA photosensitization by porphyrins.