Small-Molecule Targeted Drugs
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 3616
Special Issue Editors
Interests: medicinal chemical biology; molecular drug design; anti-tumor immunosuppressants; PD-1/PD-L1 small-molecule drugs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The discovery and development of small-molecule drugs involve a combination of biological insights, chemical syntheses, and computational modeling. Each step, from screening to drug design, is crucial in developing effective and safe medications. This Special Issue focuses on the cutting-edge methodologies and strategies used in identifying and optimizing small molecular compounds for therapeutic use, in particulr, in the discovery of small-molecule inhibitors of PD-1/PD-L1. This area of research is critical in the pharmaceutical industry as small molecules make up the majority of drugs available on the market.
This Special Issue covers various screening techniques such as high-throughput screening (HTS), structure-based drug design (SBDD), and ligand-based drug design (LBDD), which are used to rapidly evaluate vast libraries of compounds for potential biological activities. Additionally, it delves into computational approaches, including molecular docking and pharmacophore modeling, which are instrumental in predicting how small molecules interact with their biological targets, thereby accelerating the drug design process. Advances in these technologies have significantly reduced the time and cost associated with drug development while increasing the efficiency and success rate of discovering new therapeutics. This Special Issue also highlights case studies where these techniques have been successfully applied to develop drugs for various diseases, demonstrating their impact on modern medicine.
We look forward to your submission.
Prof. Dr. Wen Zhang
Guest Editor
Dr. Annoor Awadasseid
Guest Editor Assistant
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). 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
- drug discovery
- high-throughput screening
- structure (ligand)-based drug design
- PD-1/PD-L1 drug design
- molecular docking
- pharmacophore modeling
- therapeutics
- computational approaches
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