MUTUAL PRODRUGS- A SWOT ANALYSIS

Mutual prodrug is a form of prodrug in which two pharmacologically active agents are attached to each other in such a way that each drug acts as a promoiety/carrier for each other and vice versa. The association may be “synergistic” if the carrier shows the same biological action as that of parent drug or may provide “additional” benefit if it shows new pharmacological action which is lacking in parent drug. The mutual prodrug concept has shown its marked therapeutic gain in case of well-accepted and useful drugs with minor undesirable properties and  in those active compounds that suffer from severe limitations, like lack of site specificity, poor bioavailability or lack of particular activity. Now a days Anticancer, cardiovascular, antiviral, antipsychotic and anti-inflammatory drugs are best utilizing the concept of mutual prodrug designing for their better effect. In this paper, we have reviewed mechanism of activation, contribution of mutual prodrug approach in different therapeutic areas and the development in this field during the last few decades including a list of patents. This review not only describes various design approaches, methods of synthesis, pharmacological evaluations for mutual prodrugs, but has also highlighted the emerging fields of docking studies and their relevance to the pharmacokinetics of mutual prodrugs.