As one of the major therapeutic options for cancer treatment, chemotherapy has limited selectivity against cancer cells. Consequently, this therapeutic strategy offers a small therapeutic window with potentially high toxicity and thus limited efficacy of doses that can be tolerated by patients. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are an emerging class of anti-cancer therapeutic drugs that can deliver highly cytotoxic molecules directly to cancer cells. To date, twelve ADCs have received market approval, with several others in clinical stages. ADCs have become a powerful class of therapeutic agents in oncology and hematology. ADCs consist of recombinant monoclonal antibodies that are covalently bound to cytotoxic chemicals via synthetic linkers. The linker has a key role in ADC outcomes because its characteristics substantially impact the therapeutic index efficacy and pharmacokinetics of these drugs. Stable linkers and ADCs can maintain antibody concentration in blood circulation, and they do not release the cytotoxic drug before it reaches its target, thus resulting in minimum off-target effects. The linkers used in ADC development can be classified as cleavable and non-cleavable. The former, in turn, can be grouped into three types: hydrazone, disulfide, or peptide linkers. In this review, we highlight the various linkers used in ADC development and their design strategy, release mechanisms, and future perspectives.
This review provides an overview of the broad applicability of s-triazine. Our many years working with this intriguing moiety allow us to discuss its wide activity spectrum (inhibition against MAO-A and -B, anticancer/antiproliferative and antimicrobial activity, antibacterial activity against MDR clinical isolates, antileishmanial agent, and use as drug nano delivery system). Most of the compounds addressed in our studies and those performed by other groups contain only N-substitution. Exploiting the concept of orthogonal chemoselectivity, first described by our group, we have successfully incorporated different nucleophiles in different orders into s-triazine core for application in peptides/proteins at a temperature compatible with biological systems.
2,4,6-Trichloro-1,3,5-triazine (TCT) is a privileged core that has the capacity to undergo sequential nucleophilic substitution reactions. Three nucleophiles, namely phenol, thiol and amine, were studied and the preferential order of incorporation on TCT was found to be first phenol, second thiol and third amine. The introduction of phenol was achieved at −20°C. The incorporation of this nucleophile in TCT helped to replace the third ‘Cl’ at 35°C, which is compatible with a biological context. The atomic charges on ‘Cl’ calculated by theoretical approaches were consistent with the experimental findings.
An example of triorthogonal chemoselectivity is reported here for the first time. In this regard, a series of 43 reactions were performed using tridentate s-triazine as a model. In all of the possible cases, the three substitutions were carried out using different nucleophiles at a temperature compatible with biological systems.
A unique property of 2,4,6-trichloro-1,3,5-triazine (TCT) is its ability to undergoes a nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction (SNAr) under temperature-controlled conditions. Using a convenient and biologically friendly protocol, mono-substituted s-triazines were treated with excess nucleophiles to obtain tri-substituted triazines in 1 + 2 mode (one nucleophile as the first substitution followed by another nucleophile for the other two positions). The nucleophiles used for this study were phenol, thiol and amine, and the best order of incorporation was phenol or thiol for the first position followed by amine for the last two positions.
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