Cover Feature: Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of Lipopeptide Conjugates of Mercaptoundecahydrododecaborate for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (ChemMedChem 8/2019)

• Published in: ChemMedChem Vol. 14; no. 8; p. 797
• Main Authors: Isono, Aoi, Tsuji, Mieko, Sanada, Yu, Matsushita, Akari, Masunaga, Shinichiro, Hirayama, Tasuku, Nagasawa, Hideko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 17.04.2019
• Subjects: antitumor therapy; boron carriers; boron neutron capture therapy; membrane-permeable lipopeptides
• ISSN: 1860-7179; 1860-7187
• DOI: 10.1002/cmdc.201900213

The Cover Feature shows a putative mechanism of intracellular delivery of the lipopeptide conjugate of sodium mercaptoundecahydrodecaborate (BSH), a new 10B carrier for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). Once the boron carrier enters the cell by flipping of the lipopeptide vehicle across a membrane, the cargo moiety containing BSH is released by reductive cleavage of the disulfide bond by cytosolic GSH, and accumulates in the cell due to its anionic charge. The nuclear reaction of 10B with low‐energy thermal neutrons produces high energy α particles and 7Li nuclei with short path lengths approximately equal to the diameter of a single tumor cell. As a result, only the cells taking the boron carrier are killed. Cover art created by Mieko Tsuji. More information can be found in the Full Paper by Hideko Nagasawa et al. on page 823 in Issue 8, 2019 (DOI: 10.1002/cmdc.201800793).