Cidofovir peptide conjugates as prodrugs

Cidofovir (HPMPC, Vistide®) is a broad-spectrum anti-viral agent that is used to treat AIDS-related CMV retinitis. Currently, cidofovir is of particular interest as a potential therapy for orthopox virus infections, including smallpox. An important limitation of cidofovir and analogous nucleotide drugs in a therapeutic role is their low oral bioavailability and poor transport into cells. In principle, bioavailability of a drug can be improved by structural modification targeting transporters expressed in human intestine. To be effective, the transported prodrug must be cleaved by endogenous enzymes to its parent compound. In this work, three examples of novel cyclic cidofovir (cHPMPC) prodrugs incorporating dipeptides were synthesized and evaluated in a rat oral bioavailability model, in which the prodrugs showed significantly enhanced transport vs. HPMPC and cHPMPC. The prodrugs inhibited Gly-Sar uptake in a competitive binding assay using DC5 cells over-expressing hPepT1.     

Cyclization-activated prodrugs

Many drugs suffer from an extensive first-pass metabolism leading to drug inactivation and/or production of toxic metabolites, which makes them attractive targets for prodrug design. The classical prodrug approach, which involves enzyme-sensitive covalent linkage between the parent drug and a carrier moiety, is a well established strategy to overcome bioavailability/toxicity issues. However, the development of prodrugs that can regenerate the parent drug through non-enzymatic pathways has emerged as an alternative approach in which prodrug activation is not influenced by inter- and intraindividual variability that affects enzymatic activity. Cyclization-activated prodrugs have been capturing the attention of medicinal chemists since the middle-1980s, and reached maturity in prodrug design in the late 1990 s. Many different strategies have been exploited in recent years concerning the development of intramoleculary-activated prodrugs spanning from analgesics to anti-HIV therapeutic agents. Intramolecular pathways have also a key role in two-step prodrug activation, where an initial enzymatic cleavage step is followed by a cyclization-elimination reaction that releases the active drug. This work is a brief overview of research on cyclization-activated prodrugs from the last two decades.     

Evaluation of Cell‐Penetrating Peptides Using Microfluidic In Vitro 3D Brain Endothelial Barrier

In drug delivery to the human brain, blood vessels are a significant hurdle because they restrict the entry of most solutes to protect brain. To overcome this hurdle, an in vitro 3D model for brain endothelial barrier is developed using a microfluidic device with hydrogel providing a 3D extracellular matrix scaffold. Using the model, peptides known to utilize receptor‐mediated transcytosis are verified, which has been one of the most promising mechanisms for brain‐specific penetration. The cytotoxicity and cellular damage to the peptide are investigated and the receptor‐mediated transcytosis and brain endothelial specific penetrating abilities of the peptides in a quantitative manner are demonstrated. As a preclinical test, applying the quantification assays conducted in this study are suggested, including the penetrating ability, cytotoxicity, endothelial damage, and receptor specificity. Using this microfluidic device as an in vitro platform for evaluating various brain targeting drugs and drug carrier candidates is also proposed.     

Toward eradicating HIV reservoirs in the brain: inhibiting P-glycoprotein at the blood-brain barrier with prodrug abacavir dimers

Eradication of HIV reservoirs in the brain necessitates penetration of antiviral agents across the blood-brain barrier (BBB), a process limited by drug efflux proteins such as P-glycoprotein (P-gp) at the membrane of brain capillary endothelial cells. We present an innovative chemical strategy toward the goal of therapeutic brain penetration of the P-gp substrate and antiviral agent abacavir, in conjunction with a traceless tether. Dimeric prodrugs of abacavir were designed to have two functions: inhibit P-gp efflux at the BBB and revert to monomeric therapeutic within cellular reducing environments. The prodrug dimers are potent P-gp inhibitors in cell culture and in a brain capillary model of the BBB. Significantly, these agents demonstrate anti-HIV activity in two T-cell-based HIV assays, a result that is linked to cellular reversion of the prodrug to abacavir. This strategy represents a platform technology that may be applied to other therapies with limited brain penetration due to P-glycoprotein.     

Application of thermal analysis to the study of lipidic prodrug incorporation into nanocarriers

Anti HIV molecules as numerous drugs cannot efficiently penetrate into the brain. Prodrug synthesis and encapsulation into pegylated nanocarriers have been proposed as an approach for brain delivery. Pegylated polymeric nanoparticles and liposomes were chosen to incorporate glycerolipidic prodrugs of didanosine. Differential scanning calorimetry experiments were performed on mixtures of prodrugs and lipids or polymer in order to study their interaction. The optimal incorporation ratios were determined for each prodrug and compared for both types of nanocarriers. All these results would be used to prepare optimised formulations of didanosine prodrugs loaded into pegylated nanocarriers for brain drug delivery.     

Prodrugs in cardiovascular therapy

Prodrugs are biologically inactive derivatives of an active drug intended to solve certain problems of the parent drug such as toxicity, instability, minimal solubility and non-targeting capabilities. The majority of drugs for cardiovascular diseases undergo first-pass metabolism, resulting in drug inactivation and generation of toxic metabolites, which makes them appealing targets for prodrug design. Since prodrugs undergo a chemical reaction to form the parent drug once inside the body, this makes them very effective in controlling the release of a variety of compounds to the targeted site. This review will provide the reader with an insight on the latest developments of prodrugs that are available for treating a variety of cardiovascular diseases. In addition, we will focus on several drug delivery methodologies that have merged with the prodrug approach to provide enhanced target specificity and controlled drug release with minimal side effects.     

Design, synthesis, and characterization of a series of cytochrome P(450) 3A-activated prodrugs (HepDirect prodrugs) useful for targeting phosph(on)ate-based drugs to the liver

A new class of phosphate and phosphonate prodrugs, called HepDirect prodrugs, is described that combines properties of rapid liver cleavage with high plasma and tissue stability to achieve increased drug levels in the liver. The prodrugs are substituted cyclic 1,3-propanyl esters designed to undergo an oxidative cleavage reaction catalyzed by a cytochrome P(450) (CYP) expressed predominantly in the liver. Reported herein is the discovery of a prodrug series containing an aryl substituent at C4 and its use for the delivery of nucleoside-based drugs to the liver. Prodrugs of 5'-monophosphates of vidarabine, lamivudine (3TC), and cytarabine as well as the phosphonic acid adefovir were shown to cleave following exposure to liver homogenates and exhibit good stability in blood and other tissues. Prodrug cleavage required the presence of the aryl group in the cis-configuration, but was relatively independent of the nucleoside and absolute stereochemistry at C4. Mechanistic studies suggested that prodrug cleavage proceeded via an initial CYP3A-catalyzed oxidation to an intermediate ring-opened monoacid, which subsequently was converted to the phosph(on)ate and an aryl vinyl ketone by a beta-elimination reaction. Studies in primary rat hepatocytes and normal rats comparing 3TC and the corresponding HepDirect prodrug demonstrated the ability of these prodrugs to effectively bypass the rate-limiting nucleoside kinase step and produce higher levels of the biologically active nucleoside triphosphate.     

Chemical Approaches for Studying the Biology and Pharmacology of Membrane Transporters: The Histidine/Large Amino Acid Transporter SLC7A5 as a Benchmark

The localization of membrane transporters at the forefront of natural barriers makes these proteins very interesting due to their involvement in the absorption and distribution of nutrients and xenobiotics, including drugs. Over the years, structure/function relationship studies have been performed employing several strategies, including chemical modification of exposed amino acid residues. These approaches are very meaningful when applied to membrane transporters, given that these proteins are characterized by both hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains with a different degree of accessibility to employed chemicals. Besides basic features, the chemical targeting approaches can disclose information useful for pharmacological applications as well. An eminent example of this picture is the histidine/large amino acid transporter SLC7A5, known as LAT1 (Large Amino Acid Transporter 1). This protein is crucial in cell life because it is responsible for mediating the absorption and distribution of essential amino acids in peculiar body districts, such as the blood brain barrier and placenta. Furthermore, LAT1 can recognize a large variety of molecules of pharmacological interest and is also considered a hot target for drugs due to its over-expression in virtually all human cancers. Therefore, it is not surprising that the chemical targeting approach, coupled with bioinformatics, site-directed mutagenesis and transport assays, proved fundamental in describing features of LAT1 such as the substrate binding site, regulatory domains and interactions with drugs that will be discussed in this review. The results on LAT1 can be considered to have general applicability to other transporters linked with human diseases.     

Targeting Cancer with PCPA‐Drug Conjugates: LSD1 Inhibition‐Triggered Release of 4‐Hydroxytamoxifen

Targeting cancer with small molecule prodrugs should help overcome problems associated with conventional cancer‐targeting methods. Herein, we focused on lysine‐specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) to trigger the controlled release of anticancer drugs in cancer cells, where LSD1 is highly expressed. Conjugates of the LSD1 inhibitor trans‐2‐phenylcyclopropylamine (PCPA) were used as novel prodrugs to selectively release anticancer drugs by LSD1 inhibition. As PCPA‐drug conjugate (PDC) prototypes, we designed PCPA‐tamoxifen conjugates 1 a and 1 b , which released 4‐hydroxytamoxifen in the presence of LSD1 in vitro. Furthermore, 1 a and 1 b inhibited the growth of breast cancer cells by the simultaneous inhibition of LSD1 and the estrogen receptor without exhibiting cytotoxicity toward normal cells. These results demonstrate that PDCs provide a useful prodrug method that may facilitate the selective release of drugs in cancer cells.     

Interaction of naproxen amphiphilic derivatives with biomembrane models evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry and Langmuir-Blodgett studies

Anti-inflammatory drugs represent a potential new strategy for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and to reach brain tissues is a critical point for these drugs and is strictly related to their lipophilicity. Naproxen (NAP) is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs) under active investigation for AD. To improve its lipophilic character, NAP was conjugated through a diethylamine spacer (EDA) to lipoamino acids (LAA), α-amino acids containing a long alkyl side chain, to obtain the NAP-EDA-LAA10 and NAP-EDA-LAA14 prodrugs. The interaction of NAP and prodrugs with dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine phospholipids, forming either multilamellar vesicles or monolayers (at the air/water interface) and used as biomembrane models, was studied by differential scanning calorimetry and Langmuir-Blodgett techniques. Experimental data showed that NAP conjugation with LAA residues was able to enhance the drug interaction with such biomembrane models.     

Chloromethyl Glycosides as Versatile Synthons to Prepare Glycosyloxymethyl-Prodrugs

This work investigates the addition of monosaccharides to marketed drugs to improve their pharmacokinetic properties for oral absorption. To this end, a set of chloromethyl glycoside synthons were developed to prepare a variety of glycosyloxymethyl-prodrugs derived from 5-fluorouracil, thioguanine, propofol and losartan. Drug release was studied in vitro using β-glucosidase confirming rapid conversion of the monosaccharide prodrugs to release the parent drug, formaldehyde and the monosaccharide. To showcase this prodrug approach, a glucosyloxymethyl conjugate of the tetrazole-containing drug losartan was used for in vivo experiments and showed complete release of the drug in a dog-model.     

Computational modeling and in-vitro/in-silico correlation of phospholipid-based prodrugs for targeted drug delivery in inflammatory bowel disease

Targeting drugs to the inflamed intestinal tissue(s) represents a major advancement in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In this work we present a powerful in-silico modeling approach to guide the molecular design of novel prodrugs targeting the enzyme PLA₂, which is overexpressed in the inflamed tissues of IBD patients. The prodrug consists of the drug moiety bound to the sn-2 position of phospholipid (PL) through a carbonic linker, aiming to allow PLA₂ to release the free drug. The linker length dictates the affinity of the PL-drug conjugate to PLA₂, and the optimal linker will enable maximal PLA₂-mediated activation. Thermodynamic integration and Weighted Histogram Analysis Method (WHAM)/Umbrella Sampling method were used to compute the changes in PLA₂ transition state binding free energy of the prodrug molecule (??G^tr) associated with decreasing/increasing linker length. The simulations revealed that 6-carbons linker is the optimal one, whereas shorter or longer linkers resulted in decreased PLA₂-mediated activation. These in-silico results were shown to be in excellent correlation with experimental in-vitro data. Overall, this modern computational approach enables optimization of the molecular design of novel prodrugs, which may allow targeting the free drug specifically to the diseased intestinal tissue of IBD patients.     

Elongated multiple electronic cascade and cyclization spacer systems in activatible anticancer prodrugs for enhanced drug release.

The design and synthesis of several novel elongated self-elimination spacer systems for application in prodrugs is described. These elongated spacer systems can be incorporated between a cleavable specifier and the parent drug. Naphthalene- and biphenyl-containing spacers were synthesized but did not eliminate. Prodrugs of the anticancer agents doxorubicin and paclitaxel are reported that contain two or three electronic cascade spacers. A novel catalytic application of HOBt was found for the synthesis of N-aryl carbamates through reacting a 4-nitrophenyl carbonate with an aniline derivative, to connect the 1,6-elimination spacers via a carbamate linkage. In addition, a double spacer-containing paclitaxel prodrug was synthesized, comprising a 1,6-elimination spacer and a bis-amine linker connected to paclitaxel via a 2'-carbamate linkage. Prodrugs in which the novel spacer systems were incorporated between a specific tripeptide specifier and the parent drug doxorubicin or paclitaxel proved to be significantly faster activated by plasmin in comparison with prodrugs containing conventional spacer systems. It is expected that the generally applicable novel spacer systems reported herein will contribute to future development of improved enzymatically activated prodrugs.     

SDS-Based Biomembrane Mimetic Chromatography for Prediction of Human Drug Transport as an in Vitro Technique

The main oral drug absorption barriers are fluid cell membranes, and generally drugs are absorbed by a passive diffusion mechanism. On the other hand, the blood–brain barrier (BBB) is considered to be the main barrier to drug transport into the central nervous system (CNS). The BBB restricts the passive diffusion of many drugs from blood to brain. Biopartitioning micellar chromatography (BMC), a mode of micellar liquid chromatography that uses micellar mobile phases in adequate experimental conditions, can be useful as an in vitro system in mimicking the drug partitioning process into biological systems. In this study, relationships between the BMC retention data of a heterogeneous set of 12 drugs and their pharmacokinetics parameters (human oral drug absorption and BBB penetration ability) are studied and the predictive ability of the models is evaluated. Modeling of log k _BMC of these compounds was established by multiple linear regression in two different concentrations (0.07 and 0.09 M) of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The results showed a fair correlation between human oral drug absorption and BMC retention data in 0.09 M SDS (R ² = 0.864) and a good correlation between the blood–brain distribution coefficient and BMC retention data in 0.07 M of SDS (R ² = 0.887). Application of the developed models to a prediction set demonstrated that the model is also reliable with good predictive accuracy. The external and internal validation results showed that the predicted values are in good agreement with the experimental value.     

Facile preparation of pH-responsive PEGylated prodrugs for activated intracellular drug delivery

The acid-cleavable amphiphilic prodrug DOX-PEG-DOX self-assemble to form nanoparticles and enter the cell by endocytosis for the pH-triggered intracellular delivery of DOX.     

The effect of phenyl substituents on the release rates of esterase-sensitive coumarin-based prodrugs

A coumarin-based prodrug system has been recently developed in our laboratory for the preparation of esterase-sensitive prodrugs of amines, peptides, and peptidomimetics. The drug release rates from this prodrug system were found to be dependent on the structural features of the drug moiety. In certain cases, the release can be undesirably slow for drugs that are secondary amines with relatively high pKa's. Aimed at finding ways to manipulate the release rates to suit the need of different drugs, we have examined the effect of the phenyl ring substitutions on the release kinetics of such prodrugs and found that appropriately positioned alkyl substituents on the phenyl ring could help to facilitate the release by as much as 16-fold. Therefore, introduction of alkyl substituents on the phenyl ring should allow us to manipulate the release rates and, therefore, time profiles for different drugs.     

Facile preparation of pH-responsive PEGylated prodrugs for activated intracellular drug delivery

PEGylated prodrug, covalent attaching polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymer chains to therapeutic drugs, is one of the most promising techniques to improve the water-solubility, stability, and therapeutic effect of drugs. In this study, three PEGylated acid-sensitive prodrugs DOX-PEG-DOX with different molecular weights, were prepared via Schiff-base reaction between aldehyde-modified PEG and the amino groups of doxorubicin (DOX). This kind of amphiphilic polymeric prodrug could be self-assemble into nanoparticles in aqueous solution. The average particle size and morphologies of the prodrug nanoparticles under different pH conditions were observed by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. It turned out that the nanoparticles could be kept stable in the physiological environment, but degraded in acidic medium. Subsequently, we also investigated in vitro drug release behavior and found that the prodrug had acid-sensitive property. The cytotoxicity and intracellular uptake assays revealed that the prodrugs could rapidly internalized by HeLa or HepG2 cells to release DOX and effectively inhibited the proliferation of the tumor cells, which have the potential for use in cancer therapy.     

含葡糖基酮洛芬乙烯醇酯共聚物的合成及其药物释放性能

分别利用化学法和酶促法合成了酮洛芬乙烯酯和葡萄糖丁二酸乙烯酯（6-O-乙烯丁二酰-D-葡萄糖）2种聚合单体,通过2种单体的自由基聚合反应制备了具有较高分子量的酮洛芬葡萄糖共聚物前药,通过IR、NMR对聚合物的结构进行了表征,用GPC方法测定共聚物分子量。 研究了聚合单体投料比例对共聚物分子量和载药量的影响。 结果表明,随着药物乙烯酯在投料中比例的增加,聚合物前药的分子量逐渐下降,聚合物中酮洛芬的载药量逐渐增加。 酮洛芬含糖聚合物前药的体外释放研究表明,酮洛芬的释放时间大大延长,达到了缓释的目的,释药速率随着聚合物前药中葡萄糖含量增加而加快。 聚合物前药的释放动力学模拟结果显示,共聚物释药更符合一级动力学释放模型。     

Targeting self-enhanced ROS-responsive artesunatum prodrug nanoassembly potentiates gemcitabine activity by down-regulating CDA expression in cervical cancer

Prodrug self-delivery carriers with targeting that specifically responded to tumor microenvironments have good potential to improve the application dilemma of approved clinical therapeutic drugs (systemic distribution and side effects). It's noted the conversion of gemcitabine (GEM) to inactive ingredients under the action of cytidine deaminase (CDA) during metabolism in vivo limits its clinical effect. A high level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) results in a high level of oxidative stress in tumor cells, which changes the expression of CDA and optimizes the metabolism of GEM in vivo and overcome drug resistance. In this study, the ROS responsive and ROS self-supplied prodrug of artemisia (ART)-thioacetal bond (TK)-GEM was synthesized and self-vectors based on ART-TK-GEM (TK@FA NPs) was prepared by using nano precipitation. ROS responsive characteristics ensure specific release of prodrugs in tumor cells with high level of ROS thereby reducing side effects on normal cells and tissues. The endogenous ROS and newly generated ROS by ART can reduce the expression of CDA and optimizes the metabolism of GEM, and the accumulated ROS can also induce apoptosis of tumor cells, realizing synergistic anti-tumor effect of chemical drugs and traditional Chinese medicines. This paper proposes a simple method by using clinically approved drugs to improve the insufficient effect of existing chemotherapy and overcome resistance, which has potential to appropriately shorten the drug development cycle and accelerate the clinical investigation of drugs.     

Dendrimer-based prodrugs: design, synthesis, screening and biological evaluation

Dendrimers are a new class of artificial macromolecules with well-defined hyperbranched structures which enable bio-active molecules such as drugs to be presented in a highly multi-valent fashion. Covalent conjugation of drugs to the surface of dendrimers can be easily achieved either by direct chemical reactions between dendrimers and drug molecules including esterification and amidation or through cleavable linkers, depending on the functional groups on the surface of dendrimers. The pharmacological properties of these dendrimer-based prodrugs such as biocompatibility, biodistribution, biostability, bioadhesion and biopermeability can be modulated by further modifying dendrimers with specific functional molecules to fit a specific medicinal purpose. In this mini-review, recent advances on the use of dendrimers as prodrug nano-scaffolds were briefly demonstrated. The design and synthesis of dendrimer-based prodrugs as well as screening their intrinsic properties in biological systems were fully discussed.