Patent ID: 8357506

Claim:
A method of identifying a conjugate of a therapeutic agent with enhanced efficacy relative to the unconjugated therapeutic agent, comprising incubating the conjugate of the therapeutic agent in blood cells comprising immune cells and erythrocytic cells, separating immune cells from erythrocytic cells, and determining the ratio of the concentration of the conjugate of the therapeutic agent in the immune cells to the concentration of the conjugate of the therapeutic agent in the erythrocytic cells, wherein greater concentration of the conjugate of the therapeutic agent in the immune cells relative to the concentration of the conjugate of the therapeutic agent in the erythrocytic cells is indicative of the enhanced efficacy of the conjugate of the therapeutic agent relative to the unconjugated therapeutic agent; wherein the conjugate of the therapeutic agent comprises a transportophore and the therapeutic agent, in which the transportophore is covalently bonded to the therapeutic agent via a bond or a linker and improves the uptake of the therapeutic agent into immune cells.