NMR analysis of antitumor drugs: Doxorubicin,daunorubicin and their functionalized derivatives

¹H, ¹H–¹H COSY and ¹³C NMR techniques were proven as effective methods for the analysis of functionalized doxorubicin (DOX) and daunorubicin (DAU) derivatives. These compounds represent important drug conjugate intermediates that can be coupled to a variety of nanocarriers. NMR spectroscopy was shown to be an efficient method for following the progress of drug modification and can also be useful for evaluation of the functionalized structures purity. Additionally, a correction of the chemical shifts reported in the literature for the relevant drugs e.g. DOX·HCl and DAU·HCl is presented.