Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 17, Issue 32, 2011

Prodrug approaches become more and more important due to undesirable properties (poor bioavailability) of modern potential drugs. This problem can be solved by optimization of physico-chemical, biopharmaceutical or pharmacokinetic properties of the molecule, i.e. by design of prodrugs. Prodrugs are typically developed to overcome pharmaceutical, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic barriers. They are designed to Read More

L-Dopa is the mainstay of Parkinson's disease therapy; this drug is usually administered orally, but it is extensively metabolized in the gastrointestinal tract, so that relatively little arrives in the bloodstream as intact L-Dopa. The peripheral conversion of L-Dopa by amino acid decarboxylase to dopamine is responsible for the typical gastrointestinal and cardiovascular side effects. To minimize the conversion to Read More

Salicylanilides have been a subject of interest in medicinal chemistry as a group with a wide range of biological activities. The antibacterial (including antimycobacterial) and antifungal activities have come to be viewed as very significant. The synthesis of new prodrugs to counter a number of problematic properties of salicylanilides is a current trend. This article brings together the known basic facts about these pro Read More

Design, results of in vitro antimycobacterial evaluation, and study of structure-activity relationships of various pyrazinecarboxylic acid reversible derivatives are presented. This review deals with some pyrazinamide analogues/prodrugs derived from Nphenylpyrazine- 2-carboxamides (1), arylaminopyrazine-2,5-dicarbonitriles (2), aryl/alkylsulphanylpyrazines (3,4), and aroylpyrazines (5) effecting >50% inhibition in the prima Read More

In therapeutics research, the nitro compounds are part of an important group of drugs with multiple pharmacological activities. However, in drug design, the inclusion of a nitro group in a molecule changes the physico-chemical and electronic properties and is associated with increased mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. In addition, several studies have related the relationship between the antimicrobial and/or anti-protoz Read More

The treatment of cancer with common anti-proliferative agents generally suffers from an insufficient differentiation between normal and malignant cells which results in extensive side effects. To enhance the efficacy and reduce the normal tissue toxicity of anticancer drugs, numerous selective tumor therapies have emerged including the highly promising approaches ADEPT (Antibody-Directed Enzyme Prodrug Therapy), GDEPT Read More

Photodynamic therapy (PDT), the concept of cancer treatment through the selective uptake of a light-sensitive agent followed by exposure to a specific wavelength, is limited by the transport of a photosensitizer (PS) to the tumor tissue. Porphyrin, an important PS class, can be used in PDT in the form of its prodrug molecule 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA). Unfortunately, its poor pharmacokinetic properties make this compound Read More

Hydrophilic drugs, or neuroactive agents characterized by high molecular weight, do not have the physico-chemical properties required for passive diffusion across the blood brain barrier (BBB). The prodrug approach by lipidization of hydrophilic drugs generally allows to sensibly increase their permeability across BBB, even if this phenomenon is often not associated to an effective entry into the brain of the lipidized drugs. It has Read More

Glucocorticoid drugs are commonly used in the treatment of many acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. However, application of these steroids is limited because of their physico-chemical properties, such as very low water solubility. Glucocorticoids also exhibit serious adverse side effects. Therefore, new drug delivery systems are being developed, with the aim of improving the physicochemical properties of glucoc Read More

Chitosan is a linear polysaccharide with a good biodegradability, biocompatibility, and no toxicity, which provide it with huge potential for future development. The chitosan molecule appears to be a suitable polymeric complex for many biomedical applications. This review gathers current findings on the antibacterial, antifungal, antitumour and antioxidant activities of chitosan derivatives and concurs with our previous revie Read More