Prodrugs are one of the most common strategies for the design of targeted anticancer agents. However, their application is often hampered by the modifiable groups available on parent drugs. Herein, a carbon-carbon (C-C) bond cleavage-based prodrug activation strategy is reported, which was successfully used to design prodrugs of β-lapachone (β-lap), an ortho-quinone natural product without traditional modifiable groups for the construction of C-N/C-O bond cleavage-based prodrugs. The designed β-lap prodrug with a reactive oxygen species-specific trigger was quickly activated, releasing β-lap. It exerted anticancer efficacy via NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1)-mediated futile redox cycling, resulting in potent cytotoxicity that was highly selective for NQO1-rich cancer cells over normal cells both in vitro and in vivo. This significantly amplified the therapeutic window of β-lap. This study provides a practical strategy for the design of prodrugs for parent drugs that do not contain traditional modifiable groups.
Keywords: Antitumor; C−C Cleavage; Prodrugs; ROS; β-Lapachone.
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