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 December 2025 | Viewed by 88
Special Issue Editor
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
Manuscript Submission Information
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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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