Reactive Oxygen Species

Activatable Prodrugs for Targeted Delivery and Therapy

When Dr. Cooley started her lab, she did it in the interest of improving the application of prodrug strategies in order to activate therapeutic agents that will specifically target tissues that are under disease conditions. Prodrugs are inactive versions of drugs that need to be released by a chemical reaction in order to have the desired effect. If this reaction can be made to only occur in diseased tissues, then we can utilize these drugs to make them target specific areas of the body and help it recover rather than just providing a drug that has general effects on the entire body. We have worked on the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of a prodrug that is activated by reactive oxygen species. This prodrug works to target areas that are affected by a lack of blood flow to the heart during a stroke or a heart attack.