Investigation of Foscan® interactions with plasma proteins

The present study investigates the interaction of the second generation photosensitizer Foscan® with plasma albumin and lipoproteins. Spectroscopic studies indicated the presence of monomeric and aggregated Foscan® species upon addition to plasma protein solutions. Kinetics of Foscan® disaggregation in albumin-enriched solutions were very sensitive to the protein concentration and incubation temperature. Kinetic analysis demonstrated that two types of Foscan® aggregated species could be involved in disaggregation: dimers with a rate constant of k1 = (2.30 ± 0.15) × 10−3 s−1 and higher aggregates with rate constants varying from (0.55 ± 0.04) × 10−3 s−1 for the lowest to the (0.17 ± 0.02) × 10−3 s−1 for the highest albumin concentration. Disaggregation considerably increased with the temperature rise from 15 °C to 37 °C. Compared to albumin, Foscan® disaggregation kinetics in the presence of lipoproteins displayed poorer dependency on lipoprotein concentrations and smaller variations in disaggregation rate constants. Gel-filtration chromatography analysis of Foscan® in albumin solutions demonstrated the presence of aggregated fraction of free, non-bound to protein Foscan® and monomeric Foscan®, bound to protein.