Substituted 2-iminothiolanes: reagents for the preparation of disulfide cross-linked conjugates with increased stability.

Much attention has been focused recently on the stability of immunotoxin (antibody-toxin) conjugates linked by a disulfide bridge. Conflicting reports have appeared regarding the in vivo stability of such conjugates prepared with the two most commonly used cross-linking reagents, SPDP and 2-iminothiolane. We have developed (i) a series of reagents based on 2-iminothiolane substituted at the 4- and/or 5-positions (X2ITs) which, based on model studies with simple amines, should show enhanced disulfide stability when conjugated with antibodies or other proteins and (ii) a real-time method for monitoring the rate and extent of conjugation of these reagents with amino groups. Depending upon the substituent, the stability of model-activated disulfides relative to unsubstituted 2-iminothiolane was increased from 5- to 4000-fold as measured by glutathione-induced release of thionitrobenzoic acid. This family of cross-linking reagents should allow the construction of disulfide cross-linked toxin, drug, or enzyme conjugates with enhanced stability in vivo.