A series of new prodrugs of daunorubicin and doxorubicin which are candidates for antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (ADEPT) is reported. These compounds (25a,b,c and 32a,b,c) have been designed to generate cytotoxic drugs after activation with beta-glucuronidase. As expected, recovery of the active drug was observed after enzymatic cleavage by Escherichia coli beta-glucuronidase as well as by a fusion protein which has been obtained from human beta-glucuronidase and humanized CEA-specific binding region. The six prodrugs are highly stable and are more than 100-fold less cytotoxic than doxorubicin against murine L1210 cell lines. The ortho-substituted phenyl carbamates 25a,b,c are better substrates for beta-glucuronidase than the corresponding para-substituted analogues. After taking into account additional factors such as stability in plasma and kinetics of enzymatic cleavage, we selected the o-nitro prodrug 25c for clinical trials.

Click chemistry has became an important tool for molecular constructs such as biopolymers. During the development of biodegradable multifunctional poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) polymers suitable for click chemistry in water, an unexpected reaction leading to a mixture of triazole cycloadducts was observed. This result was attributed to an intramolecular ligand effect, and alternative conditions were evaluated. An efficient method was then implemented allowing the access in high yields to the expected triazolylcarbamate. pH sensitivity of the obtained isopropyltriazolylcarbamate was demonstrated at acidic pH.

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