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The folate receptor (FR) has been widely recognized as an excellent target for the tumor-selective delivery of cytotoxic agents, and four folate-drug conjugates have entered clinical evaluations for the treatment of solid tumors to date. However, most of these conjugates required structural modification of the cytotoxic warheads in order to achieve efficient drug release from the linkers. We designed and constructed a novel folate conjugate of a highly-potent next-generation taxoid, SB-T-1214, by exploiting bioorthogonal Cu-free “click” chemistry. The synthesis was highly convergent and required no HPLC purification to obtain the final folate-taxoid conjugate 1. Conjugate 1 demonstrated highly FR-specific potency (IC50 2.1–3.5 nM) against a panel of cancer cell lines, with a >1,000-fold decrease in cytotoxicity against normal human cells (IC50 >5,000 nM). The remarkable potency and selectivity of conjugate 1 can be attributed to highly FR-specific receptor-mediated endocytosis as well as efficient release of the unmodified cytotoxic warhead using a mechanism-based self-immolative linker.

The synthesis and structural assignments of 9-chloro-1,1-phenanthroline-2(1H)-thione and 1,10-dihydro-1,10-phenanthroline-2,9-dithione have been accomplished. The sulfur-bridged bis-1,10-phenanthroline macrocycle was readily prepared by heating the thione or equimolar amounts of the dithione and 2,9-dichloro-1,10-phenanthroline in diphenyl ether. Displacements of 2-chloro- or 2,9-dichloro-1,10-phenanthroline with N,N-dimethylethylenediamine afforded the corresponding amine and diamino analogues. An amino-substituted-2,2′-bis-1,10-phenanthroline has been prepared.

A long-standing problem of conventional chemotherapy is the lack of tumor-specific treatments. Traditional chemotherapy relies on the premise that rapidly proliferating cancer cells are more likely to be killed by a cytotoxic agent. In reality, however, cytotoxic agents have very little or no specificity, which leads to systemic toxicity, causing undesirable severe side effects. Consequently, various “molecularly targeted cancer therapies” have been developed for use in specific cancers, including tumor-targeted drug delivery systems. In general, such a drug delivery system consists of a tumor recognition moiety and a cytotoxic “warhead” connected through a “smart” linker to form a conjugate. When a multi-functionalized nanomaterial is used as the vehicle, a “Trojan Horse” approach can be used for mass delivery of cytotoxic “warheads” to maximize the efficacy. Exploitation of the special properties of fluorine has proven successful in the development of new and effective biochemical tools as well as therapeutic agents. Fluorinated congeners can also serve as excellent probes for the investigation of biochemical mechanisms. 19 F NMR can provide unique and powerful tools for mechanistic investigations in chemical biology. This account presents our recent progress, in perspective, on the molecular approaches to the design and development of novel tumor-targeted drug delivery systems for new generation chemotherapy by exploiting the unique nature of fluorine.