Natural Anticancer Molecules and Their Therapeutic Potential 2.0

Dear Colleagues,

Cancer is a major public health problem worldwide. Therefore, the therapeutic library of targeted anticancer drugs should be continuously replenished and enriched. The ideal candidate should selectively target tumor cells with minimal toxicity to normal cells. Specific or highly activated proteins or enzymes in tumor cell signal transduction pathways are important targets for anti-tumor drug discovery. The discovery of molecularly targeted antitumor drugs that selectively act on these specific targets has become an essential direction in the development of antitumor drugs. However, the types of existing molecularly targeted drug structures are still limited. Moreover, drug resistance and toxic side effects have become the bottleneck of molecularly targeted drug research and development in clinical application. Natural products are characterized by abundant sources and novel and diverse structures. Thus, natural products with certain biological activities are used as hit compounds for structural transformation, modification, and optimization. As a result, new chemical entities with anti-drug resistance and less toxic side effects can be obtained, which can provide new ideas for breaking through the development bottleneck of molecularly targeted drugs. The purpose of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, reporting on natural products and their derivatives with anticancer potentials, such as the isolation, synthesis, simulation design, antitumor mechanisms, and clinical trials of these molecules. It is expected to provide a centralized display platform for molecularly targeted antitumor drugs derived from natural products or their derivatives and a new insight into the use of natural products in cancer treatment.

Prof. Dr. Junmin Zhang
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.

• natural product
• leading compound
• anticancer
• potential cancer targets
• signal transduction
• apoptosis
• enzymes
• immunomodulatory
• mechanisms of action
• bioactivity-guided isolation

• Natural Anticancer Molecules and Their Therapeutic Potential in International Journal of Molecular Sciences (8 articles)