SEMISYNTHETIC RHODOMYCINS AND ANTHRACYCLINE PRODRUGS

A series of beta- and epsilon-(iso)rhodomycins and anthracycline prodrugs have been synthesized. The range of structural variants in the carbohydrate portion of the rhodomycins was designed to furnish a suitable comprehensive series of stereochemical and substitutional variants in the daunosamine moiety and provide anthracycline glycosides synthesized in sufficient quantity for antitumor evaluation in an in vitro and in vivo test system. One approach to improve the efficiency of drug action and the selectivity of drug delivery is to prepare anthracyline prodrugs which itself pharmacologicaly inactive, but which becomes activated in vivo to liberate the parent drug by enzymatic attack. The new potentially useful prodrugs obtained along this line were glycosyl-anthracyclines, which can be activated by the tumor-specific immunoenzymatic conjugates.