Medicinal chemistry of amine prodrugs

Amine Prodrugs are being used since the beginning of the 19th century in medicines. Their Chemistry, Biological activity and Pharmacodynamic Characters has been revealed better in the 20th century. Most of the drugs that are invented in the recent century are prodrugs of amines, which show their importance in medical field. The purpose of this review is to focus on various aspects of amine prodrugs like its chemistry, types, uses and future scope in medical field. This review sumarizes studies spanning the whole history of amine prodrugs, but emphasizes recent findings and several hypotheses which have been recently introduced to explain in detail how amine prodrugs function at the target site. Understanding the role of amine prodrugs in drug delivery will increase our information on molecules having amine linkages and their potential uses. It is now generally accepted that amine prodrugs have important role(s) in drug targeting; that they are the initial molecules that deliver the drug to target site in stable form. The amine prodrugs are classified on basis of the molecular linkage of nitrogen atom to the nearby atoms, example, N=H-, -N=N-, -H-N-H-, etc. Various types of molecules having amine linkages are briefly focused to on basis of their mechanism by which they release basic drug molecule at the site.