Triterpenoids and Derivatives with Anticancer Activity

Dear Colleagues,

Natural products and their derivatives are a rich source of successful drug leads. A historical assessment of all FDA-approved new molecular entities (NMEs) reveals that natural products and their analogues represent over one-third of all NMEs. Triterpenes, also called triterpenoids when functionalized, are structurally diverse natural products that originate from squalene or oxidosqualene through a series of intramolecular condensation reactions. In recent years, there has been enormous interest in terpenoid natural products and their semisynthetic derivatives due to their remarkable structural diversity and wide range of pharmacological activities.

In nature, triterpenoids are often found as tetra- or pentacyclic structures, but acyclic, mono-, bi-, tri- and hexacyclic triterpenes also exist. Tetracyclic triterpenoids, including the dammarane, cucurbitane, cycloartane, lanostane, and protostane groups, comprise triterpenoids that are widely distributed in various medicinal plants, some of them with potent anticancer activity. Pentacyclic triterpenoids can be divided into several representative classes, namely, ursanes, oleananes, and lupanes, which all include interesting bioactive compounds with immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities. This Special Issue aims to provide the opportunity to share new findings and recent advances on triterpenoids and their derivatives toward the development of new anticancer drugs.

Prof. Dr. Jorge A. R. Salvador
Guest Editor

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