Self-Immolative Systems in Diagnostic and Therapeutic Applications

Self-immolative systems first emerged in prodrug chemistry in the 1980s. Since then, several types of self-immolative systems have been developed. Despite their structural differences, all self-immolative systems operate on the same principle: an intramolecular reaction cascade triggered by a specific stimulus, ultimately leading to the release of a molecule of interest. Self-immolative systems offer the possibility of delivering molecules safely, ensuring their specific, residue-free release at a defined location. Consequently, they have been applied in various fields, including targeted drug delivery, detection of protein biomarkers and small endogenous molecules, signal amplification, and the engineering of nanomedicines. Self-immolative systems therefore represent a versatile platform for chemical engineering in biomedical sciences.