Differential effects of aminochlorin derivatives on the phagocytic and inflammatory potentials of mammalian macrophages.

Chlorin derivatives have been known for their biological activities. Especially due to their advanced electron transfer capacity they have been used as photodynamic therapy agent both at clinical and laboratory scales. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) against cancer or an infectious disease aims the development of less side effect on the patient since the activation of the inert drug molecule will start only after the light treatment. In order to increase our library of photodynamic therapy agents, we generated a set of chlorin derivatives and tested their PDT potential on the immune system cells; macrophages. Macrophages are known for their primary role as an inflammatory cell type that have been found in the inflamed tissues of the patients with autoimmune and inflammatory disorders as well as in the tumor environment as tumor associated macrophages. Our derivatives had anti-inflammatory PDT potential in the presence of a danger mimic but they lacked immunostimulatory effect. Moreover, these cells' ability to eliminate an infectious agent or present the danger molecules to the other immune cells were tested by phagocytosis assay in the presence of our compounds. Chlorin derivatives were able to differentially regulate the phagocytic activity of the mammalian macrophages.

Differential Immunomodulatory Effect of Carbon Dots Influenced by the Type of Surface Passivation Agent.

Carbon nanodots (CDs) are often synthesized from natural sources including honey, molasses, fruits, and foods, and plant extracts simply through caramelization. They have wide biological applications especially as drug delivery vehicles and bioimaging agent due to their small size and biocompatibility. This article details the synthesis of carbon dots from carob and its derivatives by surface passivation with polyethylene glycol (PEG), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and alginate (ALG). We investigated the immune response against CDs and evaluated the effect of surface passivation agents on their immunomodulatory functions. CDPVA had strong anti-inflammatory activities, whereas CDALG were pro-inflammatory. CDPEG had mild anti-inflammatory activities suggesting that these CDs can be used in the drug delivery studies as inert carriers. These results showed that depending on the type of activated groups dominated on the surface, CDs exerted differential effects on the inflammatory potential of the macrophages by changing the pro-inflammatory TNFα and IL6 production levels.

Photo-induced anti-inflammatory activities of chloro substituted subphthalocyanines on the mammalian macrophage in vitro.

In this study, a series of subphthalocyanines (SubPcs) derivatives were synthesized to generate unique immunomodulatory molecules that can be activated through photo-induction. Immunomodulatory agents have a great potential in medicine to manipulate the immune system according to our needs and prevent disease symptoms. Inflammation is one of these symptoms and macrophages play a crucial role in the generation of inflammatory responses. Being able to control the activity of these agents through photo-induction enables the fine tuning on their activities in a location specific and non-invasive manner with possibly minor side effects. Mammalian macrophages' pro-inflammatory activity was examined in the presence of our compounds as well as LPS as a danger mimic. These compounds exerted photo-induced anti-inflammatory activities on the macrophages. Number of Cl atoms was a defining factor in their photo-induced anti-inflammatory immunomodulatory efficiencies.