Targeted Therapies: Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: medicinal chemistry, enzyme inhibition, prodrug development, lead optimization, structure-guided drug design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: organic chemistry; medicinal chemistry; enzyme inhibition; structure-guided drug design; biochemical assay development; in-vitro compound evaluation (cellular)
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Small-molecule drug discovery remains to be the most effective approach to developing new therapeutic interventions addressing clinical unmet needs. Drug discovery and development can be time-consuming and expensive. However, modern approaches towards drug discovery combining computational chemistry, organic synthesis and compound evaluation at the biochemical and cellular level now allow for the rapid discovery of lead compounds that show pharmacological efficacy and selectivity towards validated biological targets for diseases that require urgent therapeutic attention.
In this Special Issue, we seek original research articles and reviews on the theme of targeted therapies detailing recent, novel advances across the drug discovery process including the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of small-molecule compounds that can modulate a specific pharmacological target. Articles detailing rational-drug drug design approaches, alongside the synthesis, optimization, and biological evaluation (biochemical and cellular) showcasing novel, potent and selective lead compounds, are welcome. Submissions detailing in vivo evaluation of lead compounds in appropriate preclinical models are particularly welcome but are not a requirement.
Dr. Stephanie Myers
Dr. Amit Nathubhai
Guest Editors
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. 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
- rational and/or structure-based design
- organic synthesis
- structure–activity relationships
- lead optimization
- biochemical analysis (assays)
- DMPK
- targeted therapies—inhibitors against known target
- prodrugs
- receptors as targets
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