Archive for the ‘Cover articles’ Category

Potent inhibition of Ca2+-dependent activation of calpain-1 on the cover of issue 5

The cover of MedChemComm issue 5 is by Rudolf K. Allemann et al., whose concise article presents the synthesis of a series of monohalide mercaptoacrylic acid derivatives, and looks at the structure activity relationship in order to investigate the ability of these molecules to inhibit the Ca2+ activation of calpain-1, which is linked with tissue inflammation.

Potent inhibition of Ca2+-dependent activation of calpain-1 by novel mercaptoacrylates
Sarah E. Adams, Christian Parr, David J. Miller, Rudolf K. Allemann and Maurice B. Hallett
Med. Chem. Commun., 2012,
DOI: 10.1039/C2MD00280A

As with all our covers, this work will be free to access for the next 6 weeks.

You may also be interested in the 3 reviews in the issue on how enantiomeric pairs reveal that key medicinal chemistry parameters vary more than simple physical property based models can explain, small-molecule inhibitors of dimeric transcription factors and Gd(III) chelates for MRI contrast agents.

Find the entire issue right here

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Computational screening of protein kinases on the cover of MedChemComm issue 4

The cover of this month’s issue of MedChemComm features work from Bonnet et al. on discriminating Type II kinase inhibitors from a large number of Type I and other decoy ligands taken from the MOE kinase and DUD databases. Have a read, it’s FREE to access for 6 weeks.

Targeting the inactive conformation of protein kinases: computational screening based on ligand conformation
Pascal Bonnet, Daniel Mucs and Richard A. Bryce
DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00256B

This issue also contains three reviews which you may find interesting:

Understanding and overcoming aminoglycoside resistance caused by N-6′-acetyltransferase
Kenward Vong and Karine Auclair
DOI: 10.1039/C2MD00253A

β-Lactams and β-lactones as activity-based probes in chemical biology
Thomas Böttcher and Stephan A. Sieber
DOI: 10.1039/C2MD00275B

The MEP pathway and the development of inhibitors as potential anti-infective agents
Ian Hale, Paul M. O’Neill, Neil G. Berry, Audrey Odom and Raman Sharma
DOI: 10.1039/C2MD00298A

View all this and much more HERE!

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Reviews on DNA methyltransferases, amphotericin B and antimalarial peroxides in Issue 3

On  the cover of this month’s issue is an image from Nadine Martinet et al. accompanying their review on small molecule inhibitors of DNA methyltransferases.  This article forms part of our recent Epigenetics collection, which also includes articles from Manfred Jung, Wolfgang Sippl, Antonello Mai and Stephen Frye.

Small molecules DNA methyltransferases inhibitors
Nadine Martinet, Benoît Y. Michel, Philippe Bertrand and Rachid Benhida
DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00194A

The issue also contains reviews from Peter Kovacic and Andrew Cooksy discussing the mechanism of the antifungal drug amphotericin B and Gary H. Posner et al. on recent advances in the design of cyclic peroxides for the treatment of malaria.

Novel, unifying mechanism for amphotericin B and other polyene drugs: electron affinity, radicals, electron transfer, autoxidation, toxicity, and antifungal action
Peter Kovacic and Andrew Cooksy
DOI: 10.1039/C2MD00267A

Antimalarial peroxides: advances in drug discovery and design
Rachel D. Slack, Alexander M. Jacobine and Gary H. Posner
DOI: 10.1039/C2MD00277A

View these and many other interesting articles online here

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Issue 2 now online including hot articles on epigenetics

On the cover of this month’s issue is an article from our Epigenetics collection from Manfred Jung, looking at the potential of small molecule inhibitors of acetyl lysine–bromodomain interactions.

Inhibition of bromodomain-mediated protein—protein interactions as a novel therapeutic strategy
Silviya D. Furdas, Luca Carlino, Wolfgang Sippl and Manfred Jung
DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00201E

The issue also contains several other epigenetics articles on second generation epigenetic agents, epigenetics as a source of new drug targets and thiobarbiturates inhibitors. The epigenetics issue was guest edited by Rasmus Prætorius Clausen (University of Copenhagen) and Mark Bunnage (Pfizer) – read their introduction to the issue.

View Issue 2

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Issue 1 2012 just published!

Happy New Year to all our readers and welcome to our first issue of 2012!

On the cover of this issue is work by John Spencer et al. on the synthesis of a small library of ferrocene-based HDAC inhibitors via click chemistry – click JAHAs.  This article is from our forthcoming web collection on Epigenetics, take a look at some of the other interesting articles published in this series.

Click JAHAs: conformationally restricted ferrocene-based histone deacetylase inhibitors
John Spencer, Jahangir Amin, Ramesh Boddiboyena, Graham Packham, Breeze E. Cavell, Sharifah S. Syed Alwi, Ronald M. Paranal, Tom D. Heightman, Minghua Wang, Brian Marsden, Peter Coxhead, Matthew Guille, Graham J. Tizzard, Simon J. Coles and James E. Bradner.
DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00203A

Also in this issue are reviews on polyamine-based epigenetic modulators, Stat5 signalling inhibitors, protein structure-based pharmacophore modeling and hot papers on the inhibition of E. coli DXP synthase and a glucuronide prodrug of doxorubicin.

View the rest of the issue here

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Bio-polymer/silica composites for drug delivery and synthetic lung surfactants on the cover of Issue 12

Welcome to the final issue of 2011!

On the outside front cover of this issue is an article from Chang-Sik Ha and coworkers on a one step synthetic route to a hierarchical mesoporous bio-polymer/silica composite material with bimodal mesopores using a dual template of N,N,N-trimethyl chitosan (TMCs) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) for pH-sensitive targeted drug release.

Hierarchical mesoporous bio-polymer/silica composites co-templated by trimethyl chitosan and a surfactant for controlled drug delivery
Vijay Kumar Rana, Sung Soo Park, Surendran Parambadath, Mi Ju Kim, Sun-Hee Kim, Satyendra Mishra, Raj Pal Singh and Chang-Sik Ha
DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00222D


On the inside front cover Adrian Schwan et al. report a a novel phospholipase-resistant C16:0, C16:1 diether phosphonoglycerol as a synthetic lung surfactant with surface activity equivalent to calf lung surfactant extract.

Synthesis and activity of a novel diether phosphonoglycerol in phospholipase-resistant synthetic lipid:peptide lung surfactants
Adrian L. Schwan, Suneel P. Singh, Jason A. Davy, Alan J. Waring, Larry M. Gordon, Frans J. Walther, Zhengdong Wang and Robert H. Notter
DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00206F

As with all our cover articles these are free to access for 6 weeks.

View the rest of the issue here

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Tracking immune cell migration on the cover of Issue 11

On the cover of Issue 11 is a hot article from Mark Bradley and coworkers on a method to track innate immune cell migration in vivo using dye-labelled peptoids.

Far red and NIR dye-peptoid conjugates for efficient immune cell labelling and tracking in preclinical models
Kevin Dhaliwal, Géraldine Escher, Asier Unciti-Broceta, Neil McDonald, A. John Simpson, Chris Haslett and Mark Bradley
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, 2, 1050-1053
DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00171J

Also in this issue is Ying-Wei Yang’s review on biocompatible nanovalves for drug delivery and release:

Towards biocompatible nanovalves based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles
Ying-Wei Yang
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, 2, 1033-1049
DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00158B

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Pyridazine-containing drugs and single-step labelling of a matrix metalloprotease inhibitor on the cover of MedChemComm Issue 10

Two hot articles feature on the cover of MedChemComm this month:

The outside front cover features the review from Camille Wermuth, Prestwick Chemical Inc., France, on the applications of pyridazine scaffolds for medicinal chemistry. This article has featured in our Top 10 lists for the last 3 months, so why not take a look at what everyone else has been reading?

Are pyridazines privileged structures?
Camille G. Wermuth
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, 2, 935-941

The inside front cover is from Chris Overall and David Perrin, demonstrating a technique for easy production of 18F labelled marimastat, a clinically trialled breast cancer drug, with general applications for PET imaging.

Towards kit-like 18F-labeling of marimastat, a noncovalent inhibitor drug for in vivo PET imaging cancer associated matrix metalloproteases
Ying Li, Richard Ting, Curtis W. Harwig, Ulrich auf dem Keller, Caroline L. Bellac, Philipp F. Lange, James A. H. Inkster, Paul Schaffer, Michael J. Adam, Thomas J. Ruth, Christopher M. Overall and David M. Perrin
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, 2, 942-949

Read the rest of the issue here

Towards kit-like 18F-labeling of marimastat, a noncovalent inhibitor drug for in vivo PET imaging cancer associated matrix metalloproteases

Ying Li, Richard Ting, Curtis W. Harwig, Ulrich auf dem Keller, Caroline L. Bellac, Philipp F. Lange, James A. H. Inkster, Paul Schaffer, Michael J. Adam, Thomas J. Ruth, Christopher M. Overall and David M. Perrin

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Tubulin polymerization inhibitors on the cover of Issue 9

Welcome to MedChemComm Issue 9.


Ahmed Kamal and colleagues from the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in Hyderabad (India) have devised a series of novel 2-Anilinonicotinyl linked 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives through simple synthetic schemes that exhibit potent anticancer efficacy via the inhibition of tubulin polymerisation, thus blocking mitotic division.

Interested? Why not read the article now! As with all our Cover articles, it will be FREE to access for the next 6 weeks.


2-Anilinonicotinyl linked 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives: Synthesis, antitumour activity and inhibition of tubulin polymerization Ahmed Kamal, Y. V. V. Srikanth, Thokhir B. Shaik, M. Naseer A. Khan, Md. Ashraf, M. Kashi Reddy, K. Anil Kumar and Shasi V. Kalivendi
Med. Chem. Commun.
, 2011, 2, 819-823 DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00177E

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

HOT: self-cleaving chemical nucleases with unprecedented in vitro cytotoxicity

A challenge for the development of redox active metal-based chemotherapeutics is producing chemical nucleases capable of self-cleaving, so that they do not require a reducing agent to initiate DNA cleavage (which obviously limits their viability in vivo).  In this HOT paper water soluble Cu2+ and Mn2+ bis-phenanthroline octanedioate complexes have been developed which are capable of doing just that – with very promising results.

The self-cleaving chemical nucleases have been developed by Andrew Kellett and Michael Devereux from Dublin Institute of Technology and colleagues from the National University of Ireland, DuPont and Penn State University.  The complexes show nano and picomolar in vitro cytotoxicity towards cancer cells and better drug tolerance in vivo than cisplatin.

To find out more, download the paper. This article is currently free to access and is on the cover of Issue 7.

Water-soluble bis(1,10-phenanthroline) octanedioate Cu2+ and Mn2+ complexes with unprecedented nano and picomolar in vitro cytotoxicity: promising leads for chemotherapeutic drug development
Andrew Kellett, Mark O’Connor, Malachy McCann, Orla Howe, Alan Casey, Pauraic McCarron, Kevin Kavanagh, Mary McNamara, Sean Kennedy, Donald D. May, Philip S. Skell, Denis O’Shea and Michael Devereux
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00266F

For the authors’ previous work why not also see:

Bis-phenanthroline copper(II) phthalate complexes are potent in vitro antitumour agents with ‘self-activating’ metallo-nuclease and DNA binding properties
Andrew Kellett, Mark O’Connor, Malachy McCann, Mary McNamara, Patrick Lynch, Georgina Rosair, Vickie McKee, Bernie Creaven, Maureen Walsh, Siobhan McClean, Agnieszka Foltyn, Denis O’Shea, Orla Howe and Michael Devereux
Dalton Trans., 2011, 40, 1024-1027
DOI: 10.1039/C0DT01607A

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)