Chemistry and Pediatric Cancer Therapy: Small Molecules and Protein Degraders in Drug Discovery
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 181
Special Issue Editors
Interests: targeted protein degradation (TPD); drug discovery; inhibitors; anticancer
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer is still the leading cause of death from disease among children in the U.S. over the age of one. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 400,000 children and adolescents of 10–19 years old develop cancer annually. Cancer kills more children than cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, AIDS, asthma, and juvenile diabetes combined. The economic burden of cancer is substantial and is expected to increase significantly. Small-molecule inhibitors have played an important role in targeted cancer therapy, but most pediatric therapies are repurposed from drugs developed for adult cancer. Recent studies on the dependency landscape of childhood cancer have highlighted the different vulnerabilities between adult and pediatric tumors, suggesting that pediatric cancer-specific drug discovery is needed. Beyond small-molecule inhibitors, molecular glues and proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) are emerging chemical modalities that target proteins for degradation and offer an additional therapeutic approach to drug undruggable targets. These therapeutic approaches are gaining traction in pediatric oncology, with pioneering research in childhood leukemia and solid tumors. This Special Issue of Molecules focuses on the chemistry in drug discovery to advance our knowledge in finding cures for pediatric cancers. All articles relating to drug design and discovery are welcome, including, but not limited to, the following aspects: design of small-molecule inhibitors, PROTACs, and molecular glues for pediatric cancer targets; structural optimization of lead compounds; designs using CADD methodologies; and modeling studies on the interaction between small molecules and macromolecules. In vitro or in vivo experiments are highly encouraged to validate the medicinal chemistry or modeling efforts.
Dr. Gisele Nishiguchi
Guest Editor
Dr. Priyanka Samanta
Guest Editor Assistant
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Keywords
- drug design
- small molecules
- protein
- computational medicinal chemistry
- anticancer
- medicinal chemistry
- biomolecular interactions
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