Water-soluble meso-substituted porphyrins as effective antimicrobial agents against Gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria

Nowadays compounds that exhibit antimicrobial effect, are under scrutiny. It is known that when a new anti-infective agent appears, the strains of bacteria which are resistant to these drugs appear also. In this regard, there is a need of new compounds with new mechanisms of exposure to pathogenic microorganisms. Porphyrins are widely used in medicine as an individual reagents and as components of drugs, mainly due to their selective light and dark cytotoxicity. Meso-substituted porphyrins are well-known photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy. They are able to penetrate into the cells across the plasma membrane by diffusion or endotsitolize, depending on their size, chemical properties and charge. The ability to easily "tuning" properties of porphyrins makes these compounds particularly attractive in the fight against resistant bacteria.