verteporfin (product), verteporfin (product), verteporfin (substance), verteporfin (substance), bpd-MA, bpd-MA, novartis brand of verteporfin, novartis brand of verteporfin
Class
Small Molecule
Description
Verteporfin, marketed as Visudyne, is a benzoporphyrin derivative. It is used as a photosensitizer in photodynamic therapy to eliminate abnormal blood vessels in wet form macular degeneration. Verteporfin accumulates in these abnormal blood vessels and, when stimulated by nonthermal red light with a wavelength of 693 nm in the presence of oxygen, produces highly reactive short-lived singlet oxygen and other reactive oxygen radicals, resulting in local damage to the endothelium and blockage of the vessels.
belongs to the class of organic compounds known as chlorins. These are large heterocyclic aromatic ring systems consisting, at the core, of three pyrroles and one pyrroline coupled through four methine linkages.
