An economic and efficient synthesis of acid-labile glycerol based β-thiopropionate esters for potential application in drug delivery

Abstract

Acid labile linkers have been used widely for various biomedical applications with preferential applications in drug delivery. In this report, we have synthesized, glycerol based β-thiopropionate esters having an acid-labile β-thiopropionate linker with Michael addition reaction between hydrophobic thiol and hydrophilic tri-glycerol diacrylate. The solvent free reaction and purification by simply solvent extraction instead of any sophisticated chromatographic techniques provide an upper edge for their application in biomedical or other fields. These β-thiopropionate esters can potentially be used for the delivery and release of hydrophobic drugs at acidic sites particularly in cancer cells.