Review: Prodrug Concept in Drug Design

Abstract

Abstract

In the world of drug discovery and development, prodrugs have become a powerful method for improving biopharmaceutical, physicochemical or pharmacokinetic properties of pharmacologically active agents. The purpose of this review is to provide some types of prodrugs which are bioreversible derivatives of drug molecules that undergo an enzymatic and/or chemical transformation in vivo to release the active parent drug, which can then exert the desired pharmacological effect. The target of prodrug design is to beat the undesirable drug properties, such as low target selectivity, low solubility in water or lipid membranes, chemical instability, irritation or pain after local administration, presystemic toxicity and metabolism. In this article, we focused on to describe the basic functional groups that are amenable to prodrug design and highlight the major applications of the prodrug strategy. Furthermore, the concepts of prodrug and the classifications of prodrugs will be offered in this article.

Keywords: Prodrug,derivatives of drug, drug-promoiety,antiviral, anticancer