New Perspectives for the Development of Drugs against Neurological Diseases: Theoretical and Experimental Aspects
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2022) | Viewed by 878
Special Issue Editors
Interests: computational and medicinal chemistry; nanotechnology; solid state spectroscopy with biological and environmental interest
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: toxins; drug design and development; antidotes for pesticide and nerve agent intoxications; Alzheimer’s disease; detergents as disinfectants, decontamination means; nanotechnology; health economics and pharmacoeconomics
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The appearance of new diseases has revealed our capacity for innovation and development of new drugs in record time, as well as for the repurposing of pre-existing drugs. New automated experimental techniques allow us to perform triage and in vitro analyses quickly. More efficient molecular modeling algorithms, together with artificial intelligence and recent advances in both hardware and simulation software, have extended accessible time scale simulations. These tools have enhanced our ability to the envisage and determine the properties of new drugs, allowing the efficient and quick prediction of the interactions between ligands and their molecular targets. It is now possible to design, synthesize, and test drugs much faster than it was a decade ago. However, the treatment of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, Parkinson's, has not benefited from new drugs in the last years. Neurological diseases cause a great impact on society at an emotional and economic level and generate stigmatization of patients who suffer from them, leaving them in a state of vulnerability. Galantamine is the last drug approved in Sweden since 2000 against Alzheimer's disease and has been available in tablets since 2005. Since then, several studies have been carried out in search of new drugs against this disease, but none has been approved. Aducanumab is a promising drug that could slow Alzheimer's disease and whose approval by the FDA is still under study. The treatment of other diseases such as schizophrenia, whose multi-molecular nature is much more complex, has witnessed important recent developments, the atypical series of drugs (second-generation drugs) being among the most recent medications launched on the market. Caplyta (lumateperone) is the last drug approved against schizophrenia by the FDA in 2019 and will go on sale in 2020. Most of the drugs available for this disease act on receptors for dopamine, serotonin, histamine, and catecholamines. However, due to the multimolecular nature of this disease and the fact that approximately 20 million people suffer from it (information from the World Health Organization, 4 October 2019), new drugs are necessary. Phytotherapeutics have also shown effects against neurological diseases; therefore, research based on natural active principles continues to be of great relevance. The objective of this Special Issue is to publish experimental and theoretical works that are being carried out in the search for new natural and synthetic substances against neurological diseases.
Prof. Dr. Teodorico C. Ramalho
Prof. Dr. Kamil Kuca
Prof. Dr. Teobaldo Ricardo Cuya Guizado
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- Neurological Diseases
- Alzheimer's
- Schizophrenia
- Parkinson's
- Molecular Modeling
- QSAR
- Organic Synthesis
- Biological Assay
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