Topical delivery of 5-fluorouracil and 6-mercaptopurine by their alkylcarbonyloxymethyl prodrugs from water: vehicle effects on design of prodrugs.

Purpose. To determine whether the fluxes through hairless mouse skin for three homologous series of prodrugs of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU, 1) and 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP, 2) from saturated aqueous suspensions show dependencies on aqueous (SAQ) and isopropyl myristate (SIPM) solubilities similar to those shown by the identical compounds delivered from IPM.