Prodrugs of Nucleotide Analogues

The field of medicinal chemistry is often struggling with suboptimal properties of active compounds. To address this issue, many sophisticated prodrug approaches have been developed. Prodrug is an inactive form of a drug which temporarily alters its properties. In the body, the prodrug is (most often enzymatically) transformed back to the parent active drug. Prodrugs can modify variety of properties such as absorption, solubility, or tissue targeted delivery. The number of prodrugs among approved drugs has been rising in the past years which underlines the importance of prodrugs for medicinal chemistry and clinical use.