Phototransformation of hematoporphyrin in aqueous solution: Anomalous behavior at low oxygen concentration

The photoactivation of a photosensitizer is the initial step in photodynamic therapy (PDT) where photochemical reactions result in the production of reactive oxygen species and eventually cell death. In addition to oxidizing biomolecules, some of these photochemical reactions lead to photosensitizer degradation at a rate dependent on the oxygen concentration among other factors. We investigated photodegradation of Photogem ® (28 μM), a hematoporphyrin derivative, at different oxygen concentrations (9.4 to 625.0 μM) in aqueous solution. The degradation was monitored by fluorescence spectroscopy. The degradation rate (M/s) increases as the oxygen concentration increases when the molar ratio of oxygen to Photogem® is greater than 1. At lower oxygen concentrations (<25 μM) an inversion of this behavior was observed. The data do not fit a simple kinetic model of first-order dependence on oxygen concentration. This inversion of the degradation rate at low oxygen concentration has not previously been demonstrated and highlights the relationship between photosensitizer and oxygen concentrations in determining the photobleaching mechanism(s). The findings demonstrate that current models for photobleaching are insufficient to explain completely the effects at low oxygen concentration.