RSC Medicinal Chemistry is delighted to introduce our Editor’s choice collection
This collection showcases some of the best articles published in the journal, handpicked by our Associate Editors and Editorial Board members.
Below we have a selection of recent RSC Medicinal Chemistry articles chosen by Associate Editor Cynthia Dowd (George Washington University, USA). Take a look at which articles he chose and why.
Cynthia Dowd’s favourite articles
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Rational design of small-sized peptidomimetic inhibitors disrupting protein–protein interaction
Junyuan Wang, Ping Zheng, Jianqiang Yu, Xiuyan Yang* and Jian Zhang* RSC Med. Chem., 2024, 15, 2212-2225 |
Cynthia’s comments:
“Disruption of protein-protein interfaces could be seen as the ‘holy grail’ of drug discovery. Indeed, much of biology and biochemistry is mediated through such protein-protein interactions (PPI). In this review, Wang et al. describe the most recent strategies for the design and development of molecules aimed at disrupting PPI. These strategies could be used by the field across a variety of protein partners.”
| Replacement of nitro function by free boronic acid in non-steroidal anti-androgens (Open Access)
Petr Šlechta, Roman Viták, Pavel Bárta, Kateřina Koucká, Monika Berková, Diana Žďárová, Andrea Petríková, Jiří Kuneš, Vladimír Kubíček, Martin Doležal, Radek Kučera and Marta Kučerová-Chlupáčová* RSC Med. Chem., 2024, 15, 4018-4038 |
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Cynthia’s comments:
“Since the clinical introduction and success of bortezomib, the investigation of boron and boronic acids in medicinal chemistry has increased. The work in this paper expands on the exploration of the boronic acid as an isostere of the nitro group within a set of antiandrogens. The authors investigate not only in vitro activity, but also the toxicity of the resulting molecules, enabling expansion of nitro-group isosterism that might be applicable to other compound classes.”
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Small molecule antipathogenic agents against Staphylococcus aureus infections
Paulo Anastácio Furtado Pacheco, Charlotte Uldahl Jansen, Morten Rybtke, Tim Tolker-Nielsen and Katrine Qvortrup* RSC Med. Chem., 2025, Advance Article |
Cynthia’s comments:
“Many anti-infective drug discovery efforts have been focused on inhibition of a function that is essential to the pathogen. In this review, the authors report on work aimed at targeting bacterial virulence factors as a way of controlling the organism. Termed “antipathogenic drugs”, these methods may result in less drug resistance compared with more traditional antibacterial drug discovery.”
Meet the Editor
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Cynthia Dowd, RSC Medicinal Chemistry Associate Editor
George Washington University, USA Dr. Cynthia Dowd is a Professor of Chemistry at George Washington University. She obtained a BA in Chemistry from the University of Virginia and a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University. Following a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania, Cindy was an intramural scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There, she led a small molecule chemistry group to discover novel agents against tuberculosis. In 2007, she began her independent career at GWU where her research is focused on the design and synthesis of novel anti-infective therapies, directed primarily against tuberculosis, malaria and the ESKAPE pathogens. |
We hope you enjoyed reading these articles. Keep an eye out on our collection webpage for more of our Editors’ favourite articles.
