Claims
- 1. An expanded porphyrin or a conjugate thereof comprising at least five pyrrole rings or pyrrole mimics wherein at least two NH moieties contained in said pyrrole rings or pyrrole mimics are replaced by S, Se and/or Te; said replacements occurring in non-adjacent pyrrole rings or pyrrole mimics;
wherein said expanded porphyrin is substituted with at least one moiety which is cationic under physiological conditions; and wherein said porphyrin may optionally be substituted by one or more non-interfering substituents and one or more carbons contained in a pyrrole ring may be replaced by O or S.
- 2. The expanded porphyrin or conjugate of claim 1, wherein the expanded porphyrin is of the formula
- 3. The expanded porphyrin or conjugate of claim 2, wherein at least one R1 is
- 4. The expanded porphyrin or conjugate of claim 1 wherein the expanded porphyrin is Se2SAP.
- 5. A pharmaceutical composition for treating tumors which comprises as active ingredient the expanded porphyrin or conjugate of claim 1 in admixture with a physiologically acceptable excipient.
- 6. A method to treat tumors in a subject, which method comprises administering to a subject in need of such treatment an effective amount of the expanded porphyrin or conjugate of claim 1 or a pharmaceutical composition thereof.
- 7. A method to inhibit the transcription of a gene whose transcription is controlled by formation of a c-MYC type G-quadruplex, which method comprises contacting an environment in which said gene can be expressed with an amount of the expanded porphyrin or conjugate of claim 1 or a pharmaceutical composition thereof effective to modulate transcription.
- 8. The method of claim 7, wherein said gene is c-MYC.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) from U.S. Serial No. 60/460,534 filed 4 Apr. 2003 and U.S. Serial No. 60/410,475 filed 12 Sep. 2002. The contents of these documents are incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60460534 |
Apr 2003 |
US |
|
60410475 |
Sep 2002 |
US |