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Synthetic and Nature Inspired Anti-inflammatory Small Molecules

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 2346

Special Issue Editor

Department of Pharmacy, University of Salerno, Fisciano, SA, Italy
Interests: drug discovery; organic synthesis; multicomponent reactions; cancer and inflammation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Although inflammation may be considered the protective response of an organism to a variety of biological, physical, and chemical injuries, it may contribute, when disregulated, to a wide range of pathological conditions, including cancer.

Among the many factors involved in this complex network of biological events, the bioactive prostanoids PGE2 represent key effectors, able to activate specific signaling pathways associated with crucial cellular processes such as cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and inflammation. Hence, the deep involvement of PGE2 in these two closely associated pathways—for example, inflammation and cancer—justify the many efforts undertaken, in the last few decades, in this research area, both in academia and industry.

Many projects, applying different approaches, have been focused on the identification of new molecular entities able to inhibit PGE2 production and possibly representing a more promising therapeutic option compared to the traditional and widespread non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) commonly used in inflammatory pathologies.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to collect and illustrate the recent developments in the field of the isolation, structural characterization, rational design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of compounds related to PGE2 inhibition as promising drug candidates.

We invite all researchers working in this field to contribute original articles presenting the results of their research endeavors. Reviews covering the main aspects of the topic are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Ines Bruno
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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

  • Organic Synthesis
  • Natural Products
  • Medicinal Chemistry
  • Inflammation
  • Cancer
  • Drug Design
  • Prostanoids

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 24239 KiB  
Article
Repositioning of Quinazolinedione-Based Compounds on Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase (sEH) through 3D Structure-Based Pharmacophore Model-Driven Investigation
by Erica Gazzillo, Stefania Terracciano, Dafne Ruggiero, Marianna Potenza, Maria Giovanna Chini, Gianluigi Lauro, Katrin Fischer, Robert Klaus Hofstetter, Assunta Giordano, Oliver Werz, Ines Bruno and Giuseppe Bifulco
Molecules 2022, 27(12), 3866; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules27123866 - 16 Jun 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1847
Abstract
The development of new bioactive compounds represents one of the main purposes of the drug discovery process. Various tools can be employed to identify new drug candidates against pharmacologically relevant biological targets, and the search for new approaches and methodologies often represents a [...] Read more.
The development of new bioactive compounds represents one of the main purposes of the drug discovery process. Various tools can be employed to identify new drug candidates against pharmacologically relevant biological targets, and the search for new approaches and methodologies often represents a critical issue. In this context, in silico drug repositioning procedures are required even more in order to re-evaluate compounds that already showed poor biological results against a specific biological target. 3D structure-based pharmacophoric models, usually built for specific targets to accelerate the identification of new promising compounds, can be employed for drug repositioning campaigns as well. In this work, an in-house library of 190 synthesized compounds was re-evaluated using a 3D structure-based pharmacophoric model developed on soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH). Among the analyzed compounds, a small set of quinazolinedione-based molecules, originally selected from a virtual combinatorial library and showing poor results when preliminarily investigated against heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), was successfully repositioned against sEH, accounting the related built 3D structure-based pharmacophoric model. The promising results here obtained highlight the reliability of this computational workflow for accelerating the drug discovery/repositioning processes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthetic and Nature Inspired Anti-inflammatory Small Molecules)
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