Special Issue "Prodrugs"

Guest Editor
Dr. Jean Jacques Vanden Eynde
Académie Universitaire Wallonie-Bruxelles, University of Mons-Hainaut, Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Unit of Organic Synthesis, Faculty of Sciences, 20 Place du Parc, B-7000 Mons, Belgium
Website: http://w3.umh.ac.be/~jjvde/lso.htm
E-Mail:
Interests: heterocycles; microwave-induced synthesis; solvent-free reactions; polymer (insoluble and soluble)-assisted syntheses; combinatorial chemistry; prodrugs

Related Special Issues in other Journals

Prodrugs in Pharmaceuticals

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• Prodrugs
• Prodrug

Manuscript ID: Molecules-prodrug-20090420-us-Li
Type of Paper: Review
Title: Imaging Beyond the Diagnosis: Image-Guided Enzyme/Prodrug Cancer Therapy
Author: Cong Li
Affiliation: JHU ICMIC Program, The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205; E-Mail: congli@mri.jhu.edu
Abstract: The ideal therapy would target cancer cells while sparing normal tissue. However in most conventional chemotherapy normal cells are damaged together with cancer cells resulting in the unfortunate side effects. The principal underlying enzyme/prodrug therapy is that a prodrug-activating enzyme is delivered or expressed in tumor tissue following which a non-toxic prodrug is administered systemically. Noninvasive imaging modalities can fill an important niche in guiding prodrug administration when the enzyme concentration is detected to be high in the tumor tissue but low in normal tissue. Therefore, high therapeutic efficacy with minimized toxic effect can be anticipated. This review will introduce the latest developments of molecular imaging in enzyme/prodrug cancer therapies. We will focus on the application of imaging modalities including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), position emission tomography (PET) and optical imaging in monitoring the enzyme delivery/expression, guiding the prodrug administration and evaluating the real-time therapeutic response in vivo.