Novel Antitumor Drug: Discovery and Synthesis, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

For many years, tumors were considered incurable. However, with the development of drug research technology and some new discoveries, tumors are becoming increasingly controllable for the long term and may even be clinically cured. Novel drugs that are emerging mainly include the following: targeted drugs, such as kinase inhibitors and antibody–drug conjugation (ADC) technology, immunoregulation to induce a powerful immune response to cancers, and drugs designed to target tumor heterogeneity, tumor-specific metabolism, and tumor microenvironmental differences. Dual-target and multi-target drugs are also becoming branches of tumor drug design; PROTAC, a targeted protein degrader with similar antibody functions, has made a large number of non-druggable targets accessible as potential targets for tumor drug design. The discovery of new natural products also provides structurally diverse lead compounds for anti-tumor drug research. Some hotspots in the current research of new anti-tumor drugs include pyroptosis and iron death. Fragment-based drug design allows scientists to flexibly and rapidly build specific compound libraries according to the structure of targets, rather than relying on large compound libraries, which can improve screening hit rates and accelerate drug development. Furthermore, compounds with improved ADME and toxicity profiles, as well as diverse and easy synthetic methods of access, are invaluable tools for designing future targeted cancer treatments.  

This Special Issue aims to present recent challenges and developments in the fields of novel antitumor drugs, but is not limited to those mentioned above. Research on novel drugs and pharmaceutical preparations provides new strategies and more therapeutic options to address clinical issues.

Dr. Shiliang Huang
Guest Editor

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.

• antitumor
• key technology of drug discovery
• kinase
• antibody–drug conjugation
• PROTAC
• dual-target drug
• drug discovery
• natural product
• pyroptosis
• iron death
• fragment-based drug design (FBDD)
• drug synthesis
• drug screening

• Novel Antitumor Drug: Discovery and Synthesis in Molecules (8 articles)