Para-hydroxyphenylhydrazines as in situ precursors of iminoquinones and quinones

Claim 1

Iminoquinone precursors having the formula: ##STR12## wherein (1) R 1 is hydrogen; phosphate; pyrophosphate; glycosyl; ribosyl; C 1 -C 30 acyl or arylacyl wherein said acyl or arylacyl is attached to the remainder of said formula by a --CO-- group; deoxyribosyl; aminoacyl having the formula --COCHR 5 NH 2 where R 5 is selected from the group consisting of side chains present in naturally occurring amino acids; bovine serum albumin; or sulfate; (2) R 2 and R 3 independently represent R 1 , alkyl, aryl, or arylalkyl; (3) R 4 is R 2 , halogen, cyano, a radical of the formula ##STR13## wherein (a) R 5 is selected from the group consisting of side chains present in naturally occurring amino acids and (b) R 6 represents hydroxy; alkoxy; --O - M + where M + represents a singly charged metal ion; bovine serum albumin; or ##STR14## a radical of the formula ##STR15## where R 5 and R 6 have the meanings previously defined; (4) O represents oxygen or --NH--; and (5) W, X, Y and Z independently represent hydrogen, halogen, hydroxy, alkoxy, aryloxy, alkylthio, amino, carboxyl, formyl, alkylamino, dialkylamino, acylamino, cyano, or nitro, or X and W or Y and Z taken together represents a carbocyclic ring having 5 to 6 ring atoms; (6) with the provisos that at least one of R 1 or R 2 must be an enzymatically hydrolyzable phosphate, pyrophosphate, glycosyl, ribosyl, deoxyribosyl, acyl, arylacyl, aminoacyl, bovine serum albumin, or sulfate group and when R 1 is hydrogen, neither R 3 nor R 4 may inhibit the enzymatic hydrolysis of R 2 .