Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
The concept of the “magic bullet”, a medicine designed to hit a specific biological target, was pioneered by Paul Ehrlich, the father of chemotherapy, some 100 years ago. Building on Ehrlich's vision, we have endeavoured to showcase not only how targeted Pt IV prodrugs may be exploited to reduce systemic toxicities associated with modern‐day chemotherapeutics, including classical Pt II drugs, but also how these prodrugs may overcome resistance issues that have plagued many chemotherapeutic regimes. A summary of advances in this field over the past decade is provided, with an emphasis on Pt IV prodrugs that target not only DNA but also enzymes, proteins, peptides and hormones. Synthetic strategies for accessing Pt IV chemistry are also provided.
Kenny et al. (Wed,) studied this question.