Recently we have
reported that the ortho-hydroxy-protected aryl
sulfate (OHPAS) system can be exploited as a new self-immolative group
(SIG) for phenolic payloads. We extended the system to nonphenolic
payloads by simply introducing a para-hydroxy benzyl (PHB) spacer.
As an additional variation of the system, we explored a benzylsulfonate
version of the OHPAS system and found that it has two distinct breakdown
pathways, cyclization and 1,4-elimination, the latter of which implies
that para-hydroxy-protected (PHP) benzylsulfonate (BS) can also be
used as an alternative SIG. The PHP-BS system was found to be stable
chemically and in mouse and human plasma, having payload release rates
comparable to those of the original OHPAS conjugates.