Lipid monolayer as a simple model membrane for comparative assessment of the photodynamic therapy photosensitizer efficiency via macroscopic measurements

Abstract Cellular membrane is one of the main targets of photodynamic therapy. Its high complexity has led to the study of the efficiency of photosensitizers on artificial lipid systems mimicking membranes. However, the preliminary analysis of this efficiency remains limited due to difficulty of the model construction and/or implementation of the required measurement techniques. Hereby, we propose a quite simple way for the rapid comparative assessment of novel photosensitizers in terms of membrane photodegradation, based on simple and fast measurements, such as wetting angle and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy. As a proof of concept, we applied this methodology to two bacteriopurpurinimide derivatives. We have shown in particular that such complementary techniques can be employed not only for the multiparametric monitoring of the kinetics of the photodegradation, but for the comparison of the damaging efficiency of the photosensitizers in the lipid structures as well.