Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), such as leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and sleeping sickness, are a class of diseases that receive a low grade of attention. These diseases usually incubate within third world countries where there are few medical resources and money is scarce, but because these diseases have been neglected for so long we are seeing their reach of pestilence spread into Northern Mexico and even reported cases in Southern United States. Many of these NTDs have similar symptoms such as skin lesions, ulcers in the organs and intestinal problems, leading to misdiagnosis of diseases and loss of crucial treatment time. The diagnostic avenues for most NTDs require routine blood work for 24 months, which can be almost impossible in nomadic communities still somewhat common in many third world nations. Due to multiple components, including the lack of drugs and common misdiagnosis of these NTDs, drug resistance is rapidly increasing.<br/><br/>Our aim is to develop a fluorophore, active in the near infrared (NIR) spectrum, capable of accurately diagnosing NTDs efficiently. A NIR diagnostic method was chosen due to the fact that it is relatively inexpensive compared to other diagnostic methods, such as MRI, PET and SPECT, as well as much faster than a full blood panel. Low cost and readily delivered diagnostics is very important due to the fact that the treatment of these diseases will be done in rural countries with few medical avenues. The NIR spectrum was chosen for this due to the absorption of fluorophores in the spectral window of 650nm to 820nm inability to permeate. When using deep tissue applications of the fluorophore, light has the deepest tissue penetration from 600-900 nm in the NIR spectra. This total fluorophore synthesis consisted of over ten steps, but was broken down into two separate halves that incorporated together at the end of the synthesis. One half of the fluorophore was synthesized via a microwave method of synthesis that consisted of three steps staring from pyrrole and methyl-4-formylbenzoate. The second half was synthesized in six steps starting from starting from pyrole-2-ccarboxaldehyde and n-propylamine. The fluorophore will then be tethered to a synthesized substrate that has high affinity towards one of the aforementioned neglected tropical diseases allowing the fluorophore to act as a pharmacokinetic tracker and a diagnosing agent.

Towards a chlorin-based fluorophore synthesis for pharmacokinetic diagnosis in neglected tropical diseases

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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