5-Aminolevulinic Acid Hydrochloride CAS 5451-09-2 5-ALA

The physiological substance and precursor of heme synthesis, 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA), is a promising prodrug, which can be used for photodiagnosis and photodynamic therapy of epithelial tumors, especially in urinary and gynecological tissues. The experiment shows that ALA aqueous solution with low pH value may be a dosage form that may be considered for marketing.

Surgical resection is usually the first-line treatment for glioma. However, neurosurgeons face major challenges in achieving maximum resection of high-grade gliomas because these invasive tumors make it difficult to discern tumor margins from the normal brain using traditional white light microscopy alone. In order to help resect these invasive tumors, fluorescence guided surgery is widely popular in intraoperative visualization of malignant glioma, with 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) in the leading position. 5-ALA was first introduced in an article in neurosurgery and has since become a safe, effective and inexpensive method to visualize and improve the resection of glioma. This undoubtedly led to an improvement in the clinical course of patients, as evidenced by the increase in overall survival and progression free survival of patients with this destructive disease. This literature review aims to discuss major studies and trials demonstrating the clinical utility of 5-ALA and its ability to contribute to complete resection of malignant gliomas.