Mechanism of Action of AminoCBIs: Highly Reactive but Highly Cytotoxic Analogues of the Duocarmycins

Duocarmycins are highly cytotoxic natural products that have potential for development into anticancer agents. Herein we describe proposed but previously unidentified NH analogues of the DNA‐alkylating subunit and characterise these by solvolysis studies, NMR and computational modelling. These compounds are shown to be the exclusive intermediates in the solvolysis of their seco precursors and to possess very similar structural features to the widely studied O‐based analogues, apart from an unusually high basicity. The measured pK_a of 10.5 implies that the NH compounds are fully protonated under physiological conditions. Remarkably, their extremely high reactivity (calculated hydrolysis rate 10⁸ times higher for protonated NH compared to the neutral O analogue) is still compatible with potent cytotoxicity, provided the active species is formed in the presence of cells. These surprising findings are of relevance to the design of duocarmycin‐based tumour‐selective therapies.