Bioactive Molecules for Targeted Cancer Therapy
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 6
Special Issue Editors
Interests: chemical biology; medicinal chemistry; prodrugs; molecular imaging; glycomimetics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue of Molecules is titled “Bioactive Molecules for Targeted Cancer Therapy”. The boom in nitrogen mustards at the start of the 20th century for cancer treatment was followed by the development other chemotherapeutic agents. These drugs have limited ability to distinguish between cancer cells and normal cells, which results in systemic toxicity and off-target effects. With the advent of molecular and genomic sequencing, cancer treatment has shifted to molecularly targeted drugs. Bioactive molecules for targeted therapy range from small molecules as selective inhibitors of kinases, epigenetic regulatory proteins, DNA damage repair enzymes, and the proteasome to peptides, proteins, and other macromolecules. Computational chemistry and chemical biology have been important tools for the identification and validation of such small molecules as targeted drugs.
In this Special Issue, we are seeking papers on recent developments in the synthesis, computational study, and evaluation of small molecules and macromolecules as targeted anti-cancer drugs. Communications, full-length research articles, and reviews are welcome.
Dr. Goreti Ribeiro Morais
Dr. Robert J. Falconer
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- enzymatic inhibitors
- fragment-based discovery
- chemical biology
- covalent ligands
- payloads
- prodrug
- (poly)peptide conjugates
- antibody–drug conjugates
- computational chemistry
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