An efficient synthetic access to new uracil-alditols bearing a porphyrin unit and biological assessment in prostate cancer cells

An efficient access to porphyrin derivatives bearing uracil-alditol moieties at the β-pyrrolic position was developed. The synthetic strategy involved a hetero Diels-Alder reaction between uracil-alditol based orthoquinodimethanes using 2-vinyl-5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin as the scaffold. The preliminary evaluation of their photodynamic effectiveness in prostate cancer cells suggests that the adducts 4-Xyl and 4-Gal are promising photodynamic agents.