A versatile acid-labile linker for antibody-drug conjugatesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c4md00150h

Antibody drug conjugates (ADC) couple therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAb) with potent toxins through a linker that is stable within systemic circulation, but cleaves within the target cells. In this report, silyl ether chemistry was used to couple the mAb trastuzumab with the chemotherapeutic, gemcitabine, to demonstrate the use of silyl ethers as a potential linker for ADCs. Silyl ether chemistry was used as the linker for an antibody drug conjugate to release a chemotherapeutic at low pH.