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Cutting-Edge Advances in New Anticancer Agents: Design, Synthesis and Application

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Oncology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 November 2025 | Viewed by 556

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Centre for Cancer Cell Biology and Drug Discovery, Griffith Institute of Drug Discovery, Griffith University, Nathan, Brisbane 4111, Australia
Interests: anticancer drugs; drug discovery; medicinal chemistry; drug resistance; anticancer activity; metal complexes

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue in IJMS, which aims to present cutting-edge research on the development of innovative anticancer therapies. Despite considerable advances in recent years, many obstacles persist, particularly in targeting highly aggressive and drug-resistant cancers. The pursuit of novel drug designs and enhancements to existing therapies continues to be a primary focus of cancer research. Additionally, understanding the mechanisms underlying cancer chemoresistance and identifying biomarkers that can predict patient responses remain essential for improving therapeutic outcomes.

This Special Issue seeks to highlight recent progress in anticancer treatment, with a special focus on strategies for addressing hard-to-treat cancers, including but not limited to triple-negative breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and glioblastoma. Studies investigating the efficacy of anticancer agents and efforts to overcome chemoresistance in preclinical models are also encouraged. Contributions on the following topics are welcome:

  • Synergistic approaches in anticancer therapy, including small-molecule inhibitors and natural product derivatives;
  • Strategies for counteracting cancer chemoresistance and elucidating its underlying mechanisms;
  • Advances in immunotherapy;
  • Predictive biomarkers, particularly from liquid biopsies, for assessing therapeutic efficacy;
  • Anticancer agents targeting metastatic dormancy;
  • Therapeutics that modulate the tumour microenvironment to enhance treatment efficacy;
  • Modern methods in preclinical drug discovery, such as 3D culture systems.

We welcome original research, experimental studies using in vitro and in vivo models, as well as review articles for consideration in this Special Issue.

Dr. Mahendiran Dharmasivam
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • combination therapies in oncology
  • small-molecule inhibitors in cancer treatment
  • natural-product-based cancer therapeutics
  • immunotherapy advancements in oncology
  • targeting metastatic dormancy in cancer
  • modulating the tumour microenvironment for therapeutic benefit
  • three-dimensional cancer models in drug discovery
  • predictive biomarkers for chemoresistance
  • medicinal chemistry approaches in anticancer agent design
  • drug development strategies for resistant cancers

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 4688 KB  
Article
Synthesis of Novel Tricyclic N-Acylhydrazones as Tubulin Polymerization Inhibitors
by Paola Corona, Michele Lai, Battistina Asproni, Giulia Sciandrone, Ilenia Lupinu, Roberta Ibba, Sandra Piras, Antonio Carta and Gabriele Murineddu
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(18), 9212; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26189212 - 20 Sep 2025
Viewed by 157
Abstract
A series of N-acylhydrazones bearing a 1,4-dihydroindeno[1,2-b]pyrrole ring, along with benzene and thiophene rings substituted with chlorine or methyl groups, was synthesized and evaluated for their antiproliferative and cytotoxic activity against the melanoma A375 cell line and to measure the [...] Read more.
A series of N-acylhydrazones bearing a 1,4-dihydroindeno[1,2-b]pyrrole ring, along with benzene and thiophene rings substituted with chlorine or methyl groups, was synthesized and evaluated for their antiproliferative and cytotoxic activity against the melanoma A375 cell line and to measure the inhibition of tubulin polymerization. Four compounds elicited interesting activity: derivatives, 1g and 1h showed a 25% slowdown of tubulin polymerization, whereas compounds 2c and 2d caused a slowdown of 40% and 60%, respectively. Molecular modelling results have confirmed that the most active N-acylhydrazones (1g, 1h, 2c, and 2d) may act as tubulin polymerization inhibitors. Full article
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