Heterocyclic Compounds and Their Metal Complexes as Potential Anticancer Drugs
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 13
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue with your original research articles and reviews dealing with heterocyclic compounds and their metal complexes with anticancer potential. Platinum-based drugs (cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin) play a major role in tumor therapy. The design and discovery of novel metal-based anticancer agents remain imperative in the search for more effective drugs in complex and multifactorial diseases like cancer. The currently available cancer therapies have numerous limitations, such as multi-drug resistance, off-target effects, and unpredictable effects, indicating that the fight against cancer requires a multidimensional approach. Heterocyclic compounds and their metal complexes are showing great promise as potential anticancer drugs due to their diverse structures and diversity in mechanisms of action. Although this topic has expanded in many different directions, there is a constant need for continuous improvement of this concept and monitoring current achievements.
This Special Issue aims to present the current potential of heterocyclic compounds and their metal complexes in combating cancer. Heterocyclic compounds are rapidly increasing in number due to extensive synthetic research and their utility, as well as their present dominant percentage of FDA-approved molecules with anticancer activity. The coordination of heterocyclic compounds with various metal ions forms compounds with different and potentially broader biological activities. As knowledge and methods in the analysis of the mechanism of action rise, it would be of importance to create a collection of papers dealing especially with novel aspects of the mechanism of action of heterocyclic compounds and their metal complexes with anticancer potential.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Rational design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of heterocyclic metal complexes with anticancer activity;
- All kinds of heterocyclic metal complexes are welcome;
- Evaluation of biological activity requires (at least screening of cytotoxicity).
I/We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Nevenka N. Gligorijević
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- heterocyclic metal complexes
- in vitro activity
- anticancer activity
- cell cycle
- apoptosis
- 3D cell culture
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