NOVEL APPROACHES ON PRODRUG BASED DRUG DESIGN

摘要

Prodrug design is really not different from the general drug discovery process, in which a unique substance is observed to have desirable pharmacological effects, and studies of its properties lead to the design of better drugs. It is a very fruitful way of research, and its introduction in human therapy has given successful results in improving the clinical and therapeutic effectiveness of drugs suffering from some undesirable properties that otherwise hinder their clinical usefulness. The present article reviews various prodrugs and their applications and presents the developments in this field during the last few decades. This review also highlights developing strategies in targeted prodrug design, including antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy, gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy and peptide transporter-associated prodrug therapy.