Photosensitisation: Molecular, Cellular and Medical Aspects [Paperback]

Radiation induces a variety of chemical processes in biological tissues. This volume is a synthesis of up-to-the-minute reviews on such photochemical and photobiological sensitized reactions with particular relevance to photomedicine. The first part gives a description of experimental techniques for the study of the primary processes after radiation absorption by biological systems. It is followed by chapters on singlet oxygen and photomedicine, considering both phototherapy and photochemotherapy. These sections also discuss the next generation of potential photosensitizing drugs.Past, present and future of photosensitisers.- Primary photochemical processes.- Continuous irradiation and emission methods.- Fluorescence lifetimes of chromophores interacting with biomolecules.- Pulse radiolysis.- The photophysics and photochemistry of some dye sensitisers.- Spectral properties of hypericin-metal complexes.- Photolysis of the photosensitisers biothionol and fentichlor.- Laser flash photolysis and singlet oxygen quantum yields of anthracyclines.- Characterization of the anthralin radical by pulse radiolysis and laser photolysis.- Photophysical and photodynamic properties of new photosensitisers.- Photoacoustic spectroscopy in biomedical sciences.- Absolute determination of quantum yields of Photosensitisation by time resolved thermal lensing.- Hematoporphyrin-manganese: a contrast agent for tumors in magnetic resonance imaging.- Interactions of light with biological tissue.- Optical measurements on tissue layers.- The optical properties of tissues at 633 nanometers as related to light dosimetry in photodynamic therapy.- Applications of the change in tissue optical properties caused by the prescence of photosensitisers.- Mechanistic characterization of photosensitised reactions.- Singlet oxygen involvement in membrane photomodification.- Standards for singlet oxygen sensitization.- Biological and chemical photoproduction of hydrogen peroxide.- Cell models.- Biological targl£ˆ