Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) are gradually revolutionizing clinical cancer therapy. The antibody–drug conjugate linker molecule determines both the efficacy and the adverse effects, and so has a major influence on the fate of ADCs. An ideal linker should be stable in the circulatory system and release the cytotoxic payload specifically in the tumor. However, existing linkers often release payloads nonspecifically and inevitably lead to off-target toxicity. This defect is becoming an increasingly important factor that restricts the development of ADCs. The pursuit of ADCs with optimal therapeutic windows has resulted in remarkable progress in the discovery and development of novel linkers. The present review summarizes the advance of the chemical trigger, linker‒antibody attachment and linker‒payload attachment over the last 5 years, and describes the ADMET properties of ADCs. This work also helps clarify future developmental directions for the linkers.

Effective and safe pharmacological interventions for hyperlipidemia remains badly needed. By incorporating the key pharmacophore of fibrates into the natural scaffold of resveratrol, a novel structural compound ZBH was constructed. In present study, we found ZBH reserved approximately one third of the sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) activation produced by resveratrol at in-vitro enzyme activity assay, directly bound to and activated all three peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) subtypes respectively in PPAR binding and transactivation assays. Moreover, ZBH (EC50, 1.75 µM) activate PPARα 21 fold more efficiently than the well-known PPAR pan agonist bezafibrate (EC50, 37.37 µM) in the cellular transactivation assays. In the high fat diet induced hyperlipidemic hamsters, 5-week treatment with ZBH significantly lowered serum triglyceride, total cholesterol, LDL-C, FFA, hyperinsulinemia, and improved insulin sensitivity more potently than bezafibrate. Meanwhile, serum transaminases, creatine phosphokinase and CREA levels were found not altered by ZBH intervention. Mechanism study indicated ZBH promoted the expression of PPARα target genes and SIRT1 mRNA. Hepatic lipogenesis was markedly decreased via down-regulation of lipogenic genes, and fatty acid uptake and oxidation was simultaneously increased in the liver and skeletal muscle via up-regulation of lipolysis genes. Glucose uptake and utilization was also significantly promoted in skeletal muscle. These results suggested that ZBH significantly lowered hyperlipidemia and ameliorated insulin resistance more efficiently than bezafibrate in the hyperlipidemic hamsters primarily by activating of PPARα, and SIRT1 promotion and activation. ZBH thus presents a potential new agent to combat hyperlipidemia.

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), designed to selectively deliver cytotoxic agents to antigen-bearing cells, are poised to become an important class of cancer therapeutics. Human epithelial growth factor receptor (HER2) is considered an effective target for cancer treatment, and a HER2-targeting ADC has shown promising results. Most ADCs undergoing clinical evaluation contain linkers that have a lysosomal protease-cleavable dipeptide, of which the most common is valine-citrulline (VC). However, valine-alanine (VA), another dipeptide comprising two human essential amino acids, has been used in next generation ADCs loading new toxins, but the druggable properties of ADCs loaded the most popular monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) remain to be further explored. In this study, we generated VA-based ADCs that connected MMAE to an anti-HER2 antibody. We studied the differences in the preparation process, in vitro stability, cathepsin B activity and in vitro cytotoxicity of VA-based ADC compared to the ADC of VC. VA had comparable performance to VC, which preliminarily displays its practicability. Additional efficacy and safety studies in a xenograft model indicate this novel ADC exerted potent anti-tumor activity and negligible toxicity. The results of this study show the application potential of VA-based ADC with MMAE as the payload.

SARS-CoV-2 has been widely spread around the world and COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. Limited clinically effective antiviral drugs are available now. The development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs has become an urgent work worldwide. At present, potential therapeutic targets and drugs for SARS-CoV-2 are continuously reported, and many repositioning drugs are undergoing extensive clinical research, including remdesivir and chloroquine. On the other hand, structures of many important viral target proteins and host target proteins, including that of RdRp and Mpro were constantly reported, which greatly promoted structure-based drug design. This paper summarizes the current research progress and challenges in the development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs, and proposes novel short-term and long-term drug research strategies.

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