Affiliation:
1. MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinorganic and Synthetic Chemistry Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Functional Molecular Engineering School of Chemistry Sun Yat‐Sen University Guangzhou China
2. State Key Laboratory for the Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Medicinal Resources MOE Key Laboratory for Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Medicinal Resources Collaborative Innovation Center for Guangxi Ethnic Medicine School of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences Guangxi Normal University Guilin China
3. MOE Key Laboratory of Theoretical Organic Chemistry and Functional Molecule School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Hunan University of Science and Technology Xiangtan China
Abstract
AbstractThe clinical approval of platinum‐based drugs has prompted the development of novel metallo‐complexes during the last several decades, while severe problems, especially for poor water solubility, drug resistance and toxicity in patients, greatly hindered the clinical trials and curative efficacy. To address these issues, the concept of metallo‐prodrugs has been proposed for oncology. Some stimuli‐activable metallo‐prodrugs provide new insights for designing and preparing site‐specific prodrugs with maximized therapeutic efficacy and negligible unfavorable by‐effects. In this review, recent progress in stimuli‐activable metallo‐prodrugs in the past 20 years has been overviewed, where endogenous and exogenous stimuli have been involved. Typical examples of smart stimuli‐activable metallo‐prodrugs are discussed regarding to their molecular structure, activation mechanism, and promising biomedical applications. In the end, challenges and future perspectives in metallo‐prodrugs have been discussed.