New Perspectives for the Development of Drugs against Neurological Diseases: Theoretical and Experimental Aspects

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

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.

• Neurological Diseases
• Alzheimer's
• Schizophrenia
• Parkinson's
• Molecular Modeling
• QSAR
• Organic Synthesis
• Biological Assay