Current Advances, Applications and Future Development of Transition Metal Complexes, 2nd Edition
A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 January 2026
Special Issue Editor
Interests: food; medicinal chemistry; bioactive products; nutraceuticals; phytochemicals; natural products extraction and isolation; antioxidants; anti-inflammatory; antimicrobials enzyme inhibition; cancer; cell biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Metal ions play fundamental roles in several biological processes, from electron transfer to catalysis and structural roles, and are frequently associated with active sites of proteins and enzymes. Thus, the medicinal applications of metals and their complexes are becoming clinically and commercially intriguing. Nowadays, the heterocyclic ligand complexes, especially with transition metals, have attracted the attention of several researchers because of their wide range of biological activities, namely antibacterial, antifungal, antitumor, antiviral, etc. Aside from their pharmaceutical role, transition metal complexes have been successfully employed as diagnostic agents. Moreover, their unique characteristics, including redox activity, variable coordination modes, and reactivity towards organic substrates, made them very attractive probes in medicinal chemistry. The unique properties of transition metal complexes have brought fascinating therapeutic applications to the development of metal-based drugs. The study of transition metal complexes, together with targeting and activation strategies, is fundamental for the synthesis of the next generation of drugs that could overcome the usual disadvantages of current drug therapies, such as dramatic side effects and resistance phenomena onset, with the hope of widening the activity spectrum and tailoring their use ad personam. The field of medicinal inorganic chemistry and interdisciplinary research on metallodrugs needs to be further developed in order to shed light on the biological, pharmacological, and molecular mechanisms of metallodrugs in complex biological systems, since these play a key role in drug development and the improvement of patient quality of life.
This Special Issue welcomes innovative research and review papers dealing with several aspects of the design, synthesis, characterization, and biological evaluation of transition metal complexes for the development of novel therapeutic tools in medicinal chemistry.
Dr. Domenico Iacopetta
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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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. Pharmaceuticals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2900 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.
Keywords
- transition metal complexes
- synthesis
- catalysis
- ligands
- biological activity
- applications
- enzyme inhibition
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