Synthesis, theoretical calculations and laser flash photolysis studies of selected amphiphilic porphyrin derivatives used as biofilm photodegradative materials

Photodynamic antimicrobial activities of gallium and indium porphyrins as well as their quaternized derivatives have been investigated against S. aureus and E. coli biofilms, as well as on their planktonic (free floating) cells using a light emitting diode lamp at 415 nm. The studied photosensitizers show considerable ability to generate singlet oxygen and the quaternized molecules 2a and 3a are potential photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT) agents with log(10) colony forming units >9 for E. coli and S. aureus planktonic cells. The quaternized derivatives are found to have higher ability to significantly suppress the biofilms of both S. aureus and E. coli in vitro. Therefore, this demonstrates that they are potentially suitable photosensitive agents for PACT use. The TD-B3LYP/LanL2DZ calculations were performed to evaluate the singlet excitation energies of quaternized and non-quaternized porphyrins in vacuo. Our study shows excellent agreement between time-dependent density-functional theory (TD-DFT) excited energies and experimental S1 > S0 excitation energies. The small deviation observed between the calculated and experimental spectra arises from the solvent effect. The excitation energies observed in these UV-visible spectra mostly originated from electron promotion between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) for the less intense band and the HOMO-1 for the most intense band of the ground states to the lower unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the excited states.

Automated summary

The study found that quaternized derivatives have significant inhibitory effects on the biofilms of S. aureus and E. coli, making them suitable for photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy with high activity in generating singlet oxygen. The small deviation observed between the calculated and experimental results primarily arises from the solvent effect.