Psoralens are eponymous for PUVA (psoralen + UV-A radiation) therapy, a treatment for skin diseases such as psoriasis. Psoralens first intercalate into DNA and then bind to it upon subsequent irradiation with UV-A light. Relying on the same process, the synthetic psoralen amotosalen (AMO) is utilized in the INTERCEPT® Blood System, a pathogen reduction technology (PRT) developed to inactivate pathogens in donated blood products.

In collaboration with Dr. Peter Bringmann, a member of the PRT manufacturer Cerus Corporation, we present a spectroscopic view on the interaction between AMO and DNA. Thereby, we discovered a promising property: AMO has been shown to preferentially intercalate into DNA, consisting exclusively of the DNA bases adenine and thymine. This could lead to increased therapeutic efficacy. Read more in our recent article published in Photochem. Photobiol. Sci.