Anticancer Natural Products: Synthetic Strategies and Biological Evaluation
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 175
Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Natural products play an important role in anticancer agents discovery all the time. Their structural diversity and biological activities provide valuable opportunities for drug discovery. However, many anticancer natural products suffer from low natural abundance, complex molecular architectures, some adverse effects and unfavorable pharmacokinetic properties, resulting in further development. These challenges drive the need for an efficient way to overcome these hurdles, such as synthetic strategies, structural modification, and rational drug design based on natural products.
This Special Issue focuses on recent advances in the chemical synthesis and biological evaluation of anticancer natural products and their analogues. The articles collected herein highlight synthetic methodologies, including total synthesis, semi-synthesis, and late-stage functionalization, that enable efficient construction of complex natural product frameworks. Emphasis is placed on stereoselective synthesis of key pharmacophores, structure–activity relationship studies, and the rational design of analogues with improved potency and selectivity. Biological evaluation featured in this issue includes in vitro cytotoxicity assays against various cancer cell lines and mechanistic studies on modes of action such as apoptosis induction and cell cycle arrest.
This collection aims to bridge synthetic chemistry and biological evaluation, providing practical strategies for researchers working on natural product-based anticancer drug discovery.
Dr. Yong Yin
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- anticancer natural products
- total synthesis
- semi-synthesis
- structural modification
- rational drug design
- structure-activity relationship
- biological evaluation
- cytotoxicity
- drug discovery
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