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Enzyme Inhibitors: Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation—3rd Edition

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Chemical Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 431

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Neurofarba, Pharmaceutical and Nutraceutical Section, University of Florence, Via Ugo Schiff 6, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
Interests: medicinal chemistry; drug design; organic synthesis; enzyme inhibition; channel blockers; G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs); ligands
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Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, Northern Michigan University, 1401 Presque Isle Avenue, Marquette, MI 49855, USA
Interests: medicinal plants; drug discovery from plants; enzymology; alkaloids; mass spectrometry; metabolomics; ethnopharmacology; enzyme inhibitors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Enzymes are specialized proteins that increase the speed of chemical reactions, thus acting as biocatalysts. In the human body, enzymes catalyze all kinds of chemical reactions, playing vital roles in digestion and metabolism, blood coagulation, neuronal signaling, DNA repair, and replication, as well as many other functions. Under physiological conditions, an enzyme works by first binding to its substrate, forming an enzyme–substrate complex, which is then converted into the final product. The final product then dissociates from the enzyme, and a new catalytic cycle begins. Although they are crucial in maintaining life, dysfunctional, improperly regulated, over-active, or over-expressed enzymes contribute to the pathology of many diseases. Both naturally derived and synthetic molecules can bind to enzymes and alter their catalytic activity, and, in most cases, reduce enzyme activity. Many of these enzyme inhibitors are approved drugs, and enzyme inhibition continues to play a pivotal role in medicinal chemistry. A primary understanding of the action of enzyme inhibitors is fundamental in the development of new therapeutic agents. This Special Issue will focus on all aspects of enzyme inhibitors, ranging from the design and synthesis of these compounds to their pharmacological evaluation and computational modeling and structural biology studies designed to elucidate the interactions between inhibitors and enzymes. Papers that focus on innovative aspects or novel mechanisms in enzyme inhibition are also welcome. We hope that this Special Issue stimulates authors and readers and makes an important contribution to the field of medicinal chemistry.

Dr. Letizia Crocetti
Dr. Maris Cinelli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • enzyme inhibitors
  • drug design
  • organic synthesis
  • biological evaluation
  • molecular modeling studies
  • kinetic experiment

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 3789 KiB  
Article
A PI3K Inhibitor with Low Cardiotoxicity and Its Synergistic Inhibitory Effect with Gilteritinib in Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) Cells
by Tianze Wu, Yi Chen, Yimin Gong, Mingzhu Lu, Chengbin Yang, Yannan Yang, Yun Ling and Yaming Zhou
Molecules 2025, 30(11), 2347; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules30112347 - 27 May 2025
Viewed by 262
Abstract
N-(2-chloro-5-(3-(pyridin-4-yl)-1H-pyrazolo [3,4-b]pyridin-5-yl)pyridin-3-yl)-4-fluorobenzenesulfonamide, namely, FD274, is a promising 7-azaindazole-based PI3K inhibitor candidate with high antitumor efficacy against acute myeloid leukemia and reduced cardiotoxicity in the zebrafish model. To advance its clinical translation, in this work, we conducted comprehensive assessments of the [...] Read more.
N-(2-chloro-5-(3-(pyridin-4-yl)-1H-pyrazolo [3,4-b]pyridin-5-yl)pyridin-3-yl)-4-fluorobenzenesulfonamide, namely, FD274, is a promising 7-azaindazole-based PI3K inhibitor candidate with high antitumor efficacy against acute myeloid leukemia and reduced cardiotoxicity in the zebrafish model. To advance its clinical translation, in this work, we conducted comprehensive assessments of the cardiotoxicity of FD274 and preliminarily investigated its synergistic antitumor effects with an FLT3 inhibitor, Gilteritinib. The cardiotoxicity profile of FD274, as well as its bioisostere FD268 (positive control), was evaluated using the C57BL/6 mouse model and the H9C2 cell line. The cardiotoxicity of FD274 after a consecutive 20-day treatment period was further assessed in an HL-60 xenograft mouse model. The synergistic cytotoxicity of FD274 with Gilteritinib was evaluated in the HL-60 cell line and the FLT3-ITD cell line MV-4-11. FD274 demonstrated lower adverse effects associated with cardiac dysfunction, oxidative stress, and myocardial injury in the C57BL/6 mouse model and in the H9C2 cell line as compared with FD268. Its negligible adverse effect was further validated in the HL-60 xenograft mice after the 20-day treatment process. Moreover, FD274 demonstrated a synergistic pro-apoptotic effect with Gilteritinib in both HL-60 and MV-4-11 cells. Our findings confirmed the low cardiotoxicity of FD274 and its great potential for combination therapy with Gilteritinib, warranting further development. Full article
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