Prodrug Strategies in the CNS Drugs: Small Modification Makes Big Improvements

Title:Prodrug Strategies in the CNS Drugs: Small Modification Makes Big Improvements

Volume: 21 Issue: 24

Author(s): Ting Kang, Zhuang Miao, Siyu Liu and Bowen Ke*

Affiliation:

• Laboratory of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, Translational Neuroscience Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041,China

Keywords: Central nervous system, CNS analgesia, General anesthesia, CNS diseases, Prodrug strategies, Improvements.

Abstract: Prodrug design is an effective method proven to improve the drug-like properties of a molecule, and it has been widely used in the drug development of various diseases. Due to the complexity of the central nervous system (CNS), the development of CNS drugs has high requirements related to the pharmaceutical, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic properties of the molecules. Prodrug design has now been widely and successfully applied to improve these properties. We conducted a mini-review to promote the use of the prodrug strategies in CNS drug development. To facilitate the description, we chose drug indications as a clue, then presented and discussed some representative CNS prodrugs. Finally, a brief summary and outlook about this area were presented.

Cite this article as:

Kang Ting , Miao Zhuang , Liu Siyu and Ke Bowen *, Prodrug Strategies in the CNS Drugs: Small Modification Makes Big Improvements, Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry 2021; 21 (24) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1568026621666210727163827