B P International

The accumulation of knowledge on intramolecular processes, enzymes and transporters along with the vast progress in molecular revolution have accelerated the search for prodrugs having the capability to replace their corresponding current marketed drugs and to provide therapeutics with better pharmacological profiles. Utilizing the different available computational methods has led to the design and synthesis of a variety of prodrugs to replace their corresponding parent drugs. It has been proven that prodrugs can significantly improve the life quality of patients. The directed enzyme prodrug therapy (DEPT) approach to employ the design of artificial enzymes to activate prodrugs at specific sites along with use of intramolecular processes to design prodrugs are the most attractive strategies to obtain more efficient therapeutics. Author(s) Details Professor Rafik Karaman Department  of  Bioorganic  Chemistry,  Faculty  of  Pharmacy, ...

The  focus  of  traditional  prodrug  approach  was  on  altering  various  physiochemical  parameters, whereas the current modern computational approach considers designing prodrugs through attaching appropriate  linkers  with  drugs  having  poor  bioavailability  which  upon  exposure  to  physiological environments release the parent active drugs in a programmable (controlled) manner resulting in an improvement of their bioavailability. With the possibility of designing prodrugs with different linkers, the release rate of the parent active drugs can be controlled. The future of  prodrug  technology  is  exciting  and  yet  challenging. Advances must be made in understanding the chemistry of many organic reactions that can be effectively utilized to enable the development of more types of prodrugs. The understanding of organic reaction me...