ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the optimal method for synthesizing thiolated doxorubicin .Methods Thiolated doxorubi-cin was synthesized through two different methods .Doxorubicin was reacted with 2-iminothiolane (2-IT) and S-acetylthioglycolic acid N-hydroxysuccinimide ester (SATA),respectively.The synthesized thiolated doxorubicin was further characterized by HPLC and MS -ESI techniques .Several factors including molar ratios as well as reaction time were evaluated .Results The results showed that thiolat-ed doxorubicin could be synthesized via both of the two methods successfully .Thiolated doxorubicin could be stable when doxorubicin was reacted with SATA .But the crude thiolated doxorubicin could be cyclized easily when doxorubicin was reacted with 2-IT.Conclu-sion Thiolated doxorubicin prepared with SATA is more feasible than that with 2-IT.