Fungicidal properties of meso-arylglycosylporphyrins: influence of sugar substituents on photoinduced damage in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

A series of neutral meso-arylglycosylporphyrins has been tested in order to evaluate their potency as antifungal agents against the yeast Saccharomyce s cerevisiae. Photodynamic activity of these molecules results in intracell ular damage as evidenced by the loss of clonogenicity and DNA fragmentation . The ability of these photosensitizers to permeate yeast cells is determin ed by microspectrofluorimetry and is correlated with their antifungal poten cy. Amphiphilic porphyrin derivatives are shown to exhibit the more pronoun ced photoactivity. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.