Enalapril is a prodrug that is converted to Enalaprilat, an active angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. A prodrug is an inactive molecule that undergoes reaction to become an active drug. Enalapril has handedness or is chiral. It has 3 chiral centers, so there are 23 = 8 different versions.
Enalapril is hydrolyzed in vivo to the active form Enalaprilat by hydrolysis. Hydrolysis is a chemical reaction where water causes the lysis (breaking apart) of a compound into smaller components. This hydrolysis alters the molecule’s solubility and acidity (pKa), making Enalaprilat more polar and better suited for binding to ACE.