Self-immolative dendrimer biodegradability by multi-enzymatic triggering

New self-immolative dendritic molecules have been designed and synthesized. The dendrons are built with a multi-enzymatic triggering mechanism, which initiates their biodegradation through a self-immolative chain fragmentation to release a reporter group from the focal point. The dendritic backbone is constructed from polycarbamate linkages, which are stable to hydrolysis and enhance the dendrons' solubility in water. The degradation can readily take place under physiological conditions on enzymatic triggering.