en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosensitizer
3 corrections found
This discovery was first observed back in 1907 by Hermann von Tappeiner when he utilized eosin to treat skin tumors.
The date is wrong. The clinical use of eosin plus light for skin tumors was reported in 1903; 1907 is associated with the term “photodynamic action,” not the first tumor treatment report.
Full reasoning
This sentence conflates two different historical milestones.
Reviews of PDT history report that Tappeiner and Jesionek used topical eosin plus light to treat skin tumors in 1903. The year 1907 is instead associated with Tappeiner and Jodlbauer introducing the term "photodynamic action".
So the article's statement is incorrect because it dates the first eosin-based skin-tumor treatment to 1907 instead of 1903.
2 sources
- Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy: an effective alternative approach to control fungal infections
In 1903, Tappeiner and the dermatologist Jesionek ... reported how the topical application of eosin associated with exposure to white light effectively treated a skin tumor... they introduced the term 'photodynamic action' in 1907.
- Photodynamic therapy for cancer
The first successful clinical tests were reported in 1903 ... patients with skin cancer ... were given a dilute solution of topical eosin before being exposed to light.
Some relevant naturally occurring examples of organometallic photosensitizers include Chlorophyll A and Chlorophyll B.
Chlorophyll a and b are not organometallic in the standard chemical sense. They are magnesium coordination compounds, and organometallic compounds require a direct metal–carbon bond.
Full reasoning
This statement incorrectly labels chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b as organometallic.
Under standard IUPAC usage, an organometallic compound must contain at least one direct bond between a metal atom and a carbon atom. Chlorophylls are instead magnesium-containing coordination compounds in which Mg is bound within a tetrapyrrolic/chlorin framework. Describing chlorophylls as magnesium coordination compounds is standard; that is not the same thing as calling them organometallic.
Therefore, presenting chlorophyll a and b as examples of organometallic photosensitizers is chemically inaccurate.
2 sources
- Brief Guide to Inorganic Nomenclature (IUPAC Technical Report)
Organometallic compounds contain at least one bond between a metal atom and a carbon atom.
- ACS Molecule of the Week: Chlorophyll
Its central structure is an aromatic porphyrin or chlorin (reduced porphyrin) ring system with a sequestered magnesium atom.
The term photosensitizer does not appear in scientific literature until the 1960s.
This is contradicted by pre-1960 literature. A 1959 Nature paper already uses the word “photosensitizer” in its abstract.
Full reasoning
The statement is historically incorrect because the term "photosensitizer" appears in scientific literature before the 1960s.
A Nature paper published on December 12, 1959 states in its abstract that a photodynamic reaction occurred "in which intracellular bacteriochlorophyll is the photosensitizer" and then refers again to "the photosensitizer" later in the same abstract. That is clear published scientific usage in the 1950s, so the claim that the term does not appear until the 1960s is false.
1 source
- Function of Carotenoid Pigments in Non-Photosynthetic Bacteria
Published: 12 December 1959 ... 'intracellular bacteriochlorophyll is the photosensitizer' ... 'some other compound would be the photosensitizer'.