Medicinal Chemistry Community Research Articles

1,2,3-Triazole Linked Chalcone-Morpholine Hybrids: Synthesis, In Vitro Antibacterial Evaluation and In Silico ADMET Predictions

Emerging multi-drug resistance (MDR) bacteria are alarming the medicinal chemistry community to establish a new class of antimicrobials with high selectivity, less toxicity, and a new mode of action. Therefore, a new series of chalcone-morpholine hybrids (6a–p) were synthesized using copper(I)-catalyzed Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition to link the above two pharmacophores with the 1,2,3-triazole ring. Antibacterial potentials of all the synthesized compounds were studied against two Gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus), and three Gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas putida, and Klebsiella pneumonia) bacterial strains. Among the tested series of compounds, 6a, 6c, and 6m against all the bacterial strains, 6e against both the Gram-positive bacteria, and 6h against all the Gram-negative bacteria were found to exhibit broad-spectrum activity compared with the standard Ampicillin. Furthermore, in silico ADME profiles were also predicted to set effective lead candidates for effective antibacterial agents.

Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine scaffold: A review on synthetic approaches and EGFR and VEGFR inhibitory activities.

The pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine core has received a lot of interest from the medicinal chemistry community as a promising framework for drug design and discovery. It is an isostere of the adenine ring of adenosine triphosphate, which allows it to mimic kinase active site hinge region binding contacts. This scaffold has a wide pharmacological and biological value, one of which is as an anticancer agent. Many successful anticancer medicines have been designed and synthesized using pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine as a key pharmacophore. The main synthetic routes of pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines as well as their recent developments as promising anticancer agents acting as endothelial growth factor receptors and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor inhibitors, published in the time frame from 1999 to 2022, are summarized in this review to set the direction for the design and synthesis of novel pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine derivatives for clinical deployment in cancer treatment.

3D-QSAR, molecular docking and ADMET studies of thioquinazolinone derivatives against breast cancer

Breast cancer is a deadly disease and the second largest cause of mortality on a worldwide platform. Despite the availability of several cancer treatments, life expectancies stay relatively poor. Consequently, the medicinal chemistry community prioritizes the quick discovery of novel anticancer drugs. In recent years, computational approaches have been widely used to accelerate the drug development process. In light of this, in the current work, we performed three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationships (3D-QSAR) and molecular docking analyses on thioquinazolinone derivatives with aromatase enzyme (PDB: 3S7S). External validation was used to validate the prediction capabilities of the generated model. The best CoMSIA (comparative molecular similarity indices analysis) model exhibited the significant values of Q2, R2andRpred2. These findings suggested that the electrostatic, hydrophobic and hydrogen bond donor and acceptor fields have a significant effect on inhibition of breast cancer. Thus, a number of innovative potent aromatase inhibitors were designed and their biological activities were predicted based on the best model. Furthermore, molecular docking studies were carried out for the designed compounds against breast cancer. Additionally, ADMET proprieties were used to evaluate drug-likeness of these novel drug candidates. The most active compounds found by these computational studies could be helpful for synthesis and testing as prospective future anti-cancer treatments.

Neuropilin (NRPs) Related Pathological Conditions and Their Modulators.

Neuropilin 1 (NRP1) represents one of the two homologous neuropilins (NRP, splice variants of neuropilin 2 are the other) found in all vertebrates. It forms a transmembrane glycoprotein distributed in many human body tissues as a (co)receptor for a variety of different ligands. In addition to its physiological role, it is also associated with various pathological conditions. Recently, NRP1 has been discovered as a coreceptor for the SARS-CoV-2 viral entry, along with ACE2, and has thus become one of the COVID-19 research foci. However, in addition to COVID-19, the current review also summarises its other pathological roles and its involvement in clinical diseases like cancer and neuropathic pain. We also discuss the diversity of native NRP ligands and perform a joint analysis. Last but not least, we review the therapeutic roles of NRP1 and introduce a series of NRP1 modulators, which are typical peptidomimetics or other small molecule antagonists, to provide the medicinal chemistry community with a state-of-the-art overview of neuropilin modulator design and NRP1 druggability assessment.

Identification and Strategies to Mitigate High Total Clearance of Benzylamine-Substituted Biphenyl Ring Systems.

For most oral small-molecule projects within drug discovery, the extent and duration of the effect are influenced by the total clearance of the compound; hence, designing compounds with low clearance remains a key focus to help enable sufficient protein target engagement. Comprehensive understanding and accurate prediction of animal clearance and pharmacokinetics provides confidence that the same can be observed for human. During a MERTK inhibitor lead optimization project, a series containing a biphenyl ring system with benzylamine meta-substitution on one phenyl and nitrogen inclusion as the meta atom on the other ring demonstrated multiple routes of compound elimination in rats. Here, we describe the identification of a structural pharmacophore involving two key interactions observed for both the MERTK program and an additional internal project. Four strategies to mitigate these clearance liabilities were identified and systematically investigated. We provide evidence that disruption of at least one of the interactions led to a significant reduction in CL that was subsequently predicted from rat hepatocytes using in vitro/in vivo extrapolation and the well-stirred scaling method. These tactics will likely be of general utility to the medicinal chemistry and DMPK community during compound optimization when similar issues are encountered for biphenyl benzylamines.

QSAR and Molecular Docking Studies of Pyrimidine-Coumarin-Triazole Conjugates as Prospective Anti-Breast Cancer Agents.

Cancer is a life-threatening disease and is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Although many drugs are available for the treatment of cancer, survival outcomes are very low. Hence, rapid development of newer anticancer agents is a prime focus of the medicinal chemistry community. Since the recent past, computational methods have been extensively employed for accelerating the drug discovery process. In view of this, in the present study we performed 2D-QSAR (Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship) analysis of a series of compounds reported with potential anticancer activity against breast cancer cell line MCF7 using QSARINS software. The best four models exhibited a r2 value of 0.99. From the generated QSAR equations, a series of pyrimidine-coumarin-triazole conjugates were designed and their MCF7 cell inhibitory activities were predicted using the QSAR equations. Furthermore, molecular docking studies were carried out for the designed compounds using AutoDock Vina against dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), colchicine and vinblastine binding sites of tubulin, the key enzyme targets in breast cancer. The most active compounds identified through these computational studies will be useful for synthesizing and testing them as prospective novel anti-breast cancer agents.

Building a Culture of Medicinal Chemistry Knowledge Sharing.

Increasing the efficiency of the drug discovery process is a challenge faced by drug hunters everywhere. One strategy medicinal chemists employ to meet this challenge is learning from knowledge sources within and beyond their organization. In this Perspective, we discuss the evolution of mechanisms for medicinal chemistry knowledge capture and sharing at Merck & Co. over the past 15 years. We describe our approach to knowledge management and report on the multiple enduring and complementary teams and initiatives we have created to capture and share knowledge within a geographically diverse medicinal chemistry community. In addition, this Perspective will share the benefits we have observed and also reflect on what has allowed our efforts to be both successful and sustainable.

An Innovation 10 Years in the Making: The Stories in the Pages of ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters.

Innovation in medicinal chemistry has been at the heart of ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters since the journal's founding 10 years ago. In his inaugural editorial, Editor-in-Chief Dennis Liotta laid out a vision for the journal to become the "premier international journal for rapid communication of cutting-edge studies," and, after 10 years, it has become exactly that. The great hope of drug discovery scientists is that their innovations will lead to new therapeutics to treat unmet medical needs. In the spirit of innovation and in celebration of the recent 10th anniversary of ACS Med. Chem. Lett., we highlight five therapeutics that were first reported or first comprehensively characterized within ACS Med. Chem. Lett.. This overview also serves to introduce the expansion of the scope of the Innovations article type to include Topical Innovations. With this extension, the journal hopes to provide a forum to showcase concise (rather than comprehensive) reviews of topics that are both timely and of great interest to the medicinal chemistry community. Moreover, these articles will emphasize the next steps to move the field toward new areas of interest in medicinal chemistry. Appropriate topics might include case studies of clinical candidates or approved drugs, new assay technologies in drug discovery, novel target classes, and innovative new approaches towards modulation of human physiology. Since its founding 10 years ago, ACS Med. Chem. Lett. has established itself as a venue for the rapid communication of studies in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. There have been several drugs and clinical candidates that were first reported or first comprehensively characterized in ACS Med. Chem. Lett. In celebration of the 10th anniversary of ACS Med. Chem. Lett. this Topical Innovations article highlights five of these compounds: Ivosidenib, Siponimod, Glasdegib, Parsaclisib, and Dabrafenib.

An Insight into Synthetic Strategies and Recent Developments of Dihydrofolate Reductase Inhibitors

AbstractThe dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is a significant target in cancer, microbial infection, fungal infection, malaria, leishmaniasis, and tuberculosis, among other diseases. The DHFR gene was discovered in prokaryotes and eukaryotes in the late 1950s and is found in all dividing cells. DHFR inhibitors are used for a variety of medicinal purposes. Increased resistance to therapeutic agents such as anticancer, antibiotic, anti‐tuberculosis, and antifungal sparked interest in the development of potent, broad‐spectrum medicines to address the issues. DHFR is a critical target in the development of innovative solutions to address the issues. Methotrexate, trimethoprim, sulfonamides, pyrimethamine, aminopterin, methotrexate, edatrexate, and pralatrexate are only a few of the medications that target DHFR. These medications are known as DHFR inhibitors. These inhibitors block the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase, resulting in a folic acid synthesis pathway that is compromised. The DHFR is involved in the conversion of dihydrofolate to tetrahydrofolate. Purine, pyrazole, pyrimidine, triazole, oxadiazole, and other heterocyclic motifs have shown to have a potential effect on the DHFR. In the medicinal chemistry community, a better understanding of the so‐called enzyme and biochemical underpinnings responsible for enzyme selectivity has led to the development of improved, unique, and new treatments. Several researchers are working on DHFR inhibitors intensely, using a variety of synthetic techniques, molecular modelling, mechanistic studies, in‐vitro and in‐vivo biological evaluations, and structure‐activity relationships (SAR). This review, compiles the findings of several research groups during the last five years. The molecular biology of DHFR, its biosynthetic pathway, and the powerful structure of DFHR inhibitors discovered during the search are all included in this review. The study also includes the latest developments in synthetic methods, molecular docking, and structure‐activity relationships.

F-based Small Group Decoration of Heteroarenes Via C-H Activation: Medicinal Chemistry Rationale and Late Stage Synthetic Methods

The use of F-based decorations in drug discovery started from the development of fluorocorticoids and fluorochinolones (1950s and 1980s respectively) and it resulted in about 20% of approved drugs on the Market containing fluorine. From a medicinal chemistry perspective, the installation of F-based small groups (e.g. -CF3, -CF2H, -OCF3, -OCF2H, -SCF3, - SCF2H) necessarily impacts on physicochemical, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and toxicological properties of small molecules. Accordingly, a huge interest on this topic is constantly arising in the medicinal chemistry community. Focusing on heteroarenes, the synthetic access to these substitutions is guaranteed by a number of effective reactions, such as Miniscitype reaction, photochemistry or electrochemistry C-H activation. The aim of this work is to analyze the rational in using these groups in medicinal chemistry and to highlight the current available synthetic toolbox of C-H activation for their introduction on heteroarenes of pharmaceutical interest. A particular focus has been given to those procedures amenable at late-stage functionalisation process.

Medicinal chemistry updates of novel HDACs inhibitors (2020 to present)

Epigentic enzymes histone deacetylases (HDACs) catalyze the removal of acetyl groups from the ε-N-acetylated lysine residues of various protein substrates including both histone and non-histone proteins. Different HDACs have distinct biological functions and are recruited to specific regions of the genome. Due to their important biological functions, HDACs have been validated in clinics for anticancer therapy, and are being explored for potential treatment of several other diseases such as Alzheimer disease (AD), metabolic disease, viral infection, and multiple sclerosis, etc. Besides five approved drugs, there are more than thirty HDACs inhibitors currently being investigated in clinical trials. Centering on the advances of drug discovery programs in this field since 2020, this review discusses HDACs inhibitors from the aspects of the structure-based rational design, isoform selectivity, pharmacology, and toxicology of the compounds of interest. The hope is to provide the medicinal chemistry community with up-to-date information and to accelerate the drug discovery programs in this area.

Small Molecule Kinase Inhibitor Drugs (1995-2021): Medical Indication, Pharmacology, and Synthesis.

The central role of dysregulated kinase activity in the etiology of progressive disorders, including cancer, has fostered incremental efforts on drug discovery programs over the past 40 years. As a result, kinase inhibitors are today one of the most important classes of drugs. The FDA approved 73 small molecule kinase inhibitor drugs until September 2021, and additional inhibitors were approved by other regulatory agencies during that time. To complement the published literature on clinical kinase inhibitors, we have prepared a review that recaps this large data set into an accessible format for the medicinal chemistry community. Along with the therapeutic and pharmacological properties of each kinase inhibitor approved across the world until 2020, we provide the synthesis routes originally used during the discovery phase, many of which were only available in patent applications. In the last section, we also provide an update on kinase inhibitor drugs approved in 2021.

Druggability modification strategies of the diarylpyrimidine‐type non‐nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors

Drug discovery of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a hot field in medicinal chemistry community for many years. The diarylpyrimidines (DAPYs) are the second-generation non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) targeting reverse transcriptase, playing a great irreplaceable role in HIV transcriptional therapy. However, fast-growing drug-resistant mutations as nonnegligible challenge are still unpredictably appeared in the clinical practice, leading to deactivate or reduce the existing drugs. In the last 20 years, more and more novel DAPY derivatives have developed with the purpose to counter the mutants. Nevertheless, most of them have dissatisfactory pharmacokinetics (PK) or poor antiviral activity toward resistant mutant strains. In this article, we will analyze the NNRTI derivatives with promising druggability, and summarize a series of druggability modification strategies to improve the antiviral activity, reduce toxicity and improve the PK properties in recent years. The prospects of DAPYs and the directions for future efforts will be discussed.

Multitarget Inhibition of Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) and Phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K): Current and Future Prospects.

The discovery of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors is a hot topic in the medicinal chemistry community regarding cancer research. This is related primarily to two factors: success in the clinic, e. g., the four FDA-approved HDAC inhibitors, and strong versatility to combine their pharmacophoric features to design new hybrid compounds with multitarget profiles. Thus, the selection of adequate pharmacophores to combine, i. e., combining targets that can result in a synergistic effect, is desirable, as it increases the probability of discovering a new useful therapeutic strategy. In this work, we highlight the design of multitarget HDAC/PI3K inhibitors. Although this approach is still in its early stages, many significant works have described the design and pharmacological evaluation of this new promising class of multitarget inhibitors, where compound CUDC-907, which is already in clinical trials, stands out. Therefore, the question emerges of whether there still space for the design and evaluation of new multitarget HDAC/PI3K inhibitors. When considering the selectivity profile of the described multitarget compounds, the answer appears to be in the affirmative, especially since the first examples of compounds with a certain selectivity profile only recently appeared in 2020.

Azaindole therapeutic agents

Azaindole structural framework is an integral part of several biologically active natural and synthetic organic molecules; and several FDA approved drugs for various diseases. In the last decade, quite a number of literature reports appeared describing the pharmacology, biological activity and therapeutic applications of a variety of azaindole molecules. This prompted the organic and medicinal chemistry community to develop novel synthetic methods for various azaindoles and test them for a bioactivity against a variety of biological targets. Herein, we have summarized the biological activity of therapeutically advanced clinical candidates and several preclinical candidate drugs that contain azaindole structural moiety.

Design and synthesis of novel phthalazinone derivatives as potent poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase 1 inhibitors.

Aim: The development of effective PARP-1 inhibitors has received great enthusiasm in medicinal chemistry communities. Results: A new series of novel phthalazinone derivatives were designed and synthesized. Among these, B1 and B16 displayed more potent PARP-1 inhibitory activities than olaparib. B16 gave an IC50 value of 7.8nM against PARP-1, and a PF50 value of 3.4 in the sensitizing effect assay. The in vivo pharmacokineticproperties evaluation showed B16 displayed insufficient oral exposure, and it was also not stable in rat blood. Conclusion: The results indicated that our design phthalazinone derivatives were potent PARP-1 inhibitors, and compound B16 was a valuable lead compound with significantin vitro efficacy, deserving further optimization to develop anticancer drug candidate.

Curse or Cure? A Perspective on the Developability of Aldehydes as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients.

There is a dichotomy between the increasing utility of aldehydes as tool molecules that bind to "undruggable" protein sites and the designation of the aldehyde functional group as a structural alert by the medicinal chemistry community. Herein we compile information about pharmacologically active aldehydes that are being used in humans. We summarize the learnings from these data, discuss advantages and challenges associated with aldehydes, and derive strategies for the successful development of aldehydes within drug discovery programs.

Novel Selective Histone Deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) Inhibitors: A Patent Review (2016-2019).

Many human diseases are associated with dysregulation of HDACs. HDAC6 exhibits deacetylase activity not only to histone protein but also to non-histone proteins such as α- tubulin, HSP90, cortactin, and peroxiredoxin. These unique functions of HDAC6 have gained significant attention in the medicinal chemistry community in recent years. Thus a great deal of effort has devoted to developing selective HDAC6 inhibitors for therapy with the hope to minimize the side effects caused by pan-HDAC inhibition. The review intends to analyze the structural feature of the scaffolds, to provide useful information for those who are interested in this field, as well as to spark the future design of the new inhibitors. The primary tool used for patent searching is SciFinder. All patents are retrieved from the following websites: the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO®), the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO®), Espacenet®, and Google Patents. The years of patents covered in this review are between 2016 and 2019. Thirty-six patents from seventeen companies/academic institutes were classified into three categories based on the structure of ZBG: hydroxamic acid, 1,3,4-oxadiazole, and 1,2,4-oxadiazole. ZBG connects to the cap group through a linker. The cap group can tolerate different functional groups, including amide, urea, sulfonamide, sulfamide, etc. The cap group appears to modulate the selectivity of HDAC6 over other HDAC subtypes. Selectively targeting HDAC6 over other subtypes represents two fold advantages: it maximizes the pharmacological effects and minimizes the side effects seen in pan-HDAC inhibitors. Many small molecule selective HDAC6 inhibitors have advanced to clinical studies in recent years. We anticipate the approval of selective HDAC6 inhibitors as therapeutic agents in the near future.

Improvement in ADMET Prediction with Multitask Deep Featurization.

The absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination, and toxicity (ADMET) properties of drug candidates are important for their efficacy and safety as therapeutics. Predicting ADMET properties has therefore been of great interest to the computational chemistry and medicinal chemistry communities in recent decades. Traditional cheminformatics approaches, using learners such as random forests and deep neural networks, leverage fingerprint feature representations of molecules. Here, we learn the features most relevant to each chemical task at hand by representing each molecule explicitly as a graph. By applying graph convolutions to this explicit molecular representation, we achieve, to our knowledge, unprecedented accuracy in prediction of ADMET properties. By challenging our methodology with rigorous cross-validation procedures and prognostic analyses, we show that deep featurization better enables molecular predictors to not only interpolate but also extrapolate to new regions of chemical space.

Recent developments in anticancer kinase inhibitors based on the pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine scaffold.

Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines have become of significant interest for the medicinal chemistry community as a privileged scaffold for the development of kinase inhibitors to treat a range of diseases, including cancer. This fused nitrogen-containing heterocycle is an isostere of the adenine ring of ATP, allowing the molecules to mimic hinge region binding interactions in kinase active sites. Similarities in kinase ATP sites can be exploited to direct the activity and selectivity of pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines to multiple oncogenic targets through focussed chemical modification. As a result, pharma and academic efforts have succeeded in progressing several pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines to clinical trials, including the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib, which has been approved for the treatment of several B-cell cancers. In this review, we examine the pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines currently in clinical trials for oncology patients, as well as those published in the literature during the last 5 years for different anticancer indications.