Recent Progress in Small Molecule Inhibitors as Targeted Cancer Therapy
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 11134
Special Issue Editors
Interests: synthesis; organic; medicinal; chemistry; drug design; elucidation
Interests: oxidative stress; animal models of diseases; gene cloning; molecular biology; natural products; pollutants; molecular mechanistic study of diseases; toxicants; proteomics; human genetics; xenobiotics
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Enzyme inhibitors are small molecules that inhibit the target protein's enzymatic activity. They inhibit major enzymes that act as signals for the development of cancer cells. Cancer cells can, thus, be prevented from developing and spreading if these cell signals are blocked. Because of their low molecular weight, these compounds can easily penetrate cells. Small molecule inhibitors can be derived from rational drug design leads or isolated from natural resources. A target-based drug discovery pathway typically includes target identification, target validation, hit identification, hit to lead, and lead optimization. Understanding the molecular interactions between small molecules and their targets is critical in drug discovery.
Small molecule inhibitors have emerged as a major therapeutic class for cancer treatment as a result of the identification of molecular targets and growing understanding of their cellular functions. Multitargeted and highly selective kinase inhibitors are used to treat advanced treatment-resistant cancers, and many have received regulatory approval for early clinical settings as adjuvant therapies or first-line options for recurrent or metastatic disease. The lessons learned from the development of these agents can be used to accelerate the development of next-generation inhibitors, with the goal of optimizing the therapeutic index, overcoming drug resistance, and establishing combination therapies.
Small molecule inhibitors have a bright future because they have the potential to investigate novel difficult-to-drug targets, to use predictive non-clinical models to select promising drug candidates for human evaluation, and to deliver precision medicine using dynamic clinical trial interventions with liquid biopsies.
This Special Issue is intended to bring together scientific papers on small molecule inhibitors derived from synthetic or natural pathways for cancer therapy. Studies on the design, synthesis, and structural elucidation of small molecule inhibitors as anticancer agents, as well as studies on possible mechanisms of action, docking simulations, ADMET studies, and any other relevant issues, can be discussed.
Prof. Dr. Bahaa G.M. Youssif
Prof. Dr. Hesham AbdelAziz El-Beshbishy
Dr. Ahmed Safwat M. Aboraia
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- inhibitors
- cancer
- mechanistic
- polypharmacology
- aromatic
- heterocycles
- drug design
- kinases
- resistance
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