Thioether linkage chemistry: perspectives and prospects in therapeutic designing

Abstract

Polymer�drug conjugates (PDCs) are an emerging approach for the development of targeted drug delivery systems for chemotherapeutic agents possessing poor pharmacokinetic properties. Development of PDCs offers an advantage of optimization to a certain extent to formulation as well as medicinal chemists via linking bioactive drug molecule to polymeric linker. Formulation of a drug in PDCs generally enhances the pharmacokinetic parameters of a drug by increasing its bioavailability. Also, controlled and target-specific drug release helps to reduce the adverse effects associated with off-target binding of the drugs. In this chapter, readers will be able to understand thoroughly the concept of PDCs, linkers used in the preparation of PDCs, their types, and various examples of PDCs that are reportedly found to be potent in the diseases they were intended to show activity. � 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.