About this Research Topic
To date, cancer stands as one of the most serious global public health challenges, considered the leading cause of death for patients’ worldwide. In recent years, the number of cancer cases has shown a global increase and reached unprecedented levels, accounting for about 10 million deaths each year. It is estimated that there are more than 100 different types of cancer, including breast, prostate, lung, colon, and pancreatic cancers. Therefore, the therapeutic arsenal of anticancer agents should be unremittingly enriched with novel small molecules that selectively target tumour cells with minimal toxicity towards normal cells.
Despite the approval of numerous anticancer drugs in the last decade, the development of novel robust and viable drug candidates has been saddled with a higher attrition rate due to multi-drug resistance, narrow therapeutic windows, and suboptimal efficacy. There is a pressing need to update and modify drug leads from a pharmaceutical chemistry point of view, to fulfil more efficient therapies for different human tumours. To that end, experts in all areas of pharmaceutical chemistry and drug discovery are welcomed to contribute to this Research Topic, to highlight state-of-the-art approaches and to report their recent achievements in drug design and development of novel anticancer candidates. The Research Topic aims to collect Original Research articles as well as Reviews, that disclose the most recent advances in the discovery of natural, semisynthetic, or synthetic anticancer small molecules that show promising potential as drug leads. We welcome articles that address cancer drug repositioning and that describe the utilization of different chemoinformatics approaches in Ligand-Based and Structure-Based drug design, such as molecular dynamics simulations, molecular docking, and pharmacophores.
The manuscripts of interest (Original papers, Reviews articles, and Mini Reviews) may include, but are not limited to:
• Development and Biological Evaluation of novel anticancer small molecules.
• Computer-Aided Drug Design and In silico Identification of potential anticancer agents, supported by experimental validation.
• Drug Repurposing In Cancer Therapy.
• Natural and Semisynthetic Products as New Anticancer Agents.
• Drug-targeting Strategies for Anticancer Agents.
Please note, studies involving natural products must focus on SAR analysis or total synthesis. Submissions focusing on isolation and characterization of natural products are not within the scope of this section.
Despite the approval of numerous anticancer drugs in the last decade, the development of novel robust and viable drug candidates has been saddled with a higher attrition rate due to multi-drug resistance, narrow therapeutic windows, and suboptimal efficacy. There is a pressing need to update and modify drug leads from a pharmaceutical chemistry point of view, to fulfil more efficient therapies for different human tumours. To that end, experts in all areas of pharmaceutical chemistry and drug discovery are welcomed to contribute to this Research Topic, to highlight state-of-the-art approaches and to report their recent achievements in drug design and development of novel anticancer candidates. The Research Topic aims to collect Original Research articles as well as Reviews, that disclose the most recent advances in the discovery of natural, semisynthetic, or synthetic anticancer small molecules that show promising potential as drug leads. We welcome articles that address cancer drug repositioning and that describe the utilization of different chemoinformatics approaches in Ligand-Based and Structure-Based drug design, such as molecular dynamics simulations, molecular docking, and pharmacophores.
The manuscripts of interest (Original papers, Reviews articles, and Mini Reviews) may include, but are not limited to:
• Development and Biological Evaluation of novel anticancer small molecules.
• Computer-Aided Drug Design and In silico Identification of potential anticancer agents, supported by experimental validation.
• Drug Repurposing In Cancer Therapy.
• Natural and Semisynthetic Products as New Anticancer Agents.
• Drug-targeting Strategies for Anticancer Agents.
Please note, studies involving natural products must focus on SAR analysis or total synthesis. Submissions focusing on isolation and characterization of natural products are not within the scope of this section.
Keywords: Apoptosis inducers, Signal transduction, Kinase inhibitors, Cancer epigenetics, Glycolytic enzymes, Molecular modelling
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
