RSC Medicinal Chemistry Blog

Top ten most accessed articles in March

27 Apr 2011

This month sees the following articles in MedChemComm that are in the top ten most accessed:-

Molecular obesity, potency and other addictions in drug discovery
Michael M. Hann
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00017A, Review

Synthesis and SAR studies of benzimidazole derivatives as melanin concentrating hormone receptor 1 (MCHR1) antagonists: Focus to detune hERG inhibition
Pradip K. Sasmal, Sanjita Sasmal, Chandrasekhar Abbineni, B. Venkatesham, P. Tirumala Rao, M. Roshaiah, Ish Khanna, V. J. Sebastian, J. Suresh, Manvendra P. Singh, Rashmi Talwar, Dhanya Shashikumar, K. Harinder Reddy, Thomas M. Frimurer, Øystein Rist, Lisbeth Elster and Thomas Högberg
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00015B, Concise Article

Novel indolizine compounds as potent inhibitors of phosphodiesterase IV (PDE4): structure-activity relationship
Shoujun Chen, Zhiqiang Xia, Masazumi Nagai, Rongzhen Lu, Elena Kostik, Teresa Przewloka, Minghu Song, Dinesh Chimmanamada, David James, Shijie Zhang, Jun Jiang, Mitsunori Ono, Keizo Koya and Lijun Sun
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, 2, 176-180 DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00215A, Concise Article

The discovery of a novel prototype small molecule TLR7 agonist for the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection
David C. Pryde, Thien-Duc Tran, Peter Jones, Gemma C. Parsons, Gerwyn Bish, Fiona M. Adam, Mya C. Smith, Donald S. Middleton, Nick N. Smith, Frederick Calo, Duncan Hay, Michael Paradowski, Katie J. W. Proctor, Tanya Parkinson, Carl Laxton, David N. A. Fox, Nigel J. Horscroft, Giuseppe Ciaramella, Hannah M. Jones, Jonathan Duckworth, Neil Benson, Anthony Harrison and Rob Webster
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, 2, 185-189 DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00197J, Concise Article

Discovery and pharmacological characterization of a selective delta opiate receptor antagonist (CP-646,777)
Spiros Liras, Stanton F. McHardy, Martin P. Allen, Barb E. Segelstein, Steven D. Heck, Dianne K. Bryce, Anne W. Schmidt, Rebecca O’Connor, Michelle Vanase-Frawley, Ernesto Callegari and Stafford McLean
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00249F, Concise Article

The importance of solvation in the design of ligands targeting membrane proteins
Angel González, Marta Murcia, Bellinda Benhamú, Mercedes Campillo, María L. López-Rodríguez and Leonardo Pardo
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, 2, 160-164 DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00258E, Concise Article

The p53-MDM2/MDMX axis – A chemotype perspective
Kareem Khoury, Grzegorz M. Popowicz, Tad A. Holak and Alexander Dömling
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, 2, 246-260 DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00248H, Review

Chemical space as a source for new drugs
Jean-Louis Reymond, Ruud van Deursen, Lorenz C. Blum and Lars Ruddigkeit
Med. Chem. Commun., 2010, 1, 30-38 DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00020E, Review

Tacrine-mefenamic acid hybrids for inhibition of acetylcholinesterase
Joshua J. Bornstein, Todd J. Eckroat, Jacob L. Houghton, Christopher K. Jones, Keith D. Green and Sylvie Garneau-Tsodikova
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00256A, Concise Article

Synthesis, in silico screening and bioevaluation of dispiro-cycloalkanones as antitubercular and mycobacterial NAD+-dependent DNA ligase inhibitors
Rama P. Tripathi, Jyoti Pandey, Vandana Kukshal, Arya Ajay, Mridul Mishra, Divya Dube, Deepti Chopra, R. Dwivedi, Vinita Chaturvedi and Ravishankar Ramachandran
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00246A, Concise Article

Why not take a look at the articles today and blog your thoughts and comments below.

Fancy submitting an article to MedChemComm? Then why not submit to us today or alternatively email us your suggestions.

Comments Off on Top ten most accessed articles in March

MedChemComm delighted to meet authors!

18 Apr 2011

By Lorena Tomas Laudo.

The Royal Society of Chemistry was present in Anaheim for the ACS Spring 2011 National Meeting and Exposition last March. Very hectic few days full of Journal celebrations, product demos and workshops.

We were very happy to hear that one of our MedChemComm authors, Jose Medina Franco, paid the RSC booth a visit.
Here you can see him with a copy of MedChemComm Issue 1, where his article was published.

Thanks to Jose for dropping by! You can now read his article, which is free to access here.

Structure–activity relationships of benzimidazole derivatives as antiparasitic agents: Dual activity-difference (DAD) maps
Jaime Pérez-Villanueva, Radleigh Santos, Alicia Hernández-Campos, Marc A. Giulianotti, Rafael Castillo and Jose L. Medina-Franco
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, 2, 44-49
DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00159G

If you want to find out where we are going this year and you want to come and meet us, like Jose did, we would love to hear from you. These are the list of conferences we are planning to go to:

Lakeland Heterocyclic meeting, May – Grasmere, UK
ACS National Organic Symposium – 5th – 9th June – Princeton, US
Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry Meeting: Emerging Targets, Novel Candidates and Innovative Strategies- 19th-21st July – Stockholm, Sweden
International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry (ISMSC) – 3rd-7th July, Brighton, UK
European Symposium on Organic Chemistry – 10th-15th July, Crete, Greece
22nd International Symposium: Synthesis in Organic Chemistry – 11th-14th July, Cambridge, UK
OMCOS 16 – 24th-28th July – Shanghai, China
GRC Medicinal Chemistry – 7th – 12th August – New Hampshire, US
4th International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry – 21st-25th August, St Petersburg, Russia
242nd Meeting of the American Chemical Society- 27th – 31st August, Denver, US
16th RSC-SCI Medicinal Chemistry meeting – 11th-14th September, Cambridge, UK

Comments Off on MedChemComm delighted to meet authors!

HOT article: potential new G-quadruplex ligands

12 Apr 2011

By Francesca Burgoyne.

Finding ligands capable of stabilising G-quadruplex DNA structures has been a hot topic in medicinal chemistry for a number of years now, due to their potential as anti-cancer treatments. But despite intensive research G-quadruplex ligands are yet to appear on the drug market-due to various problems with toxicity and efficacy-requiring the investigation of new, effective compounds.

Adam Le Gresley and colleagues from Kingston University have therefore investigated 8 anthracene-9-monoacrylamides and anthracen-9,10-bisacrylamides, which fit the criteria that has been identified for successful G-quadruplex binding. They were surprised that neither the synthesis nor biological evaluation of their chosen diacrylamides had previously been reported, and so characterise them fully here. They found that one class of ligand tested possesses anti-cancer activity, based on promotion of quadruplex DNA formation observed in solution by NMR, coupled with ‘compelling’ fluorescence data and initial biological testing. The group are now undertaking further investigations to better understand the activity of the diacrylamides.

Read more about this new class of potential G-quadruplex ligands – the paper is currently free to access:

Diacrylamides as selective G-quadruplex ligands in in vitro and in vivo assays
Adam Le Gresley, Ammara Abdullah, Deepak Chawla, Pratchi Desai, Uttam Ghosh, Uma Gollapalli, Munazza Kiran, Shehri Lafon and Alex Sinclair
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00020A

Comments Off on HOT article: potential new G-quadruplex ligands

Molecular obesity is weighing down drug discovery-MedChemComm in Chemistry World

07 Apr 2011

By Lorena Tomas Laudo.

As we anticipated, Michael Hann’s review on molecular obesity has attracted loads of interest.

Chemistry World publishes a comment on this paper in the April Issue.

You can read the full story here and download the paper which is free to access here.

Molecular obesity, potency and other addictions in drug discovery
Michael M. Hann
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00017A

Comments Off on Molecular obesity is weighing down drug discovery-MedChemComm in Chemistry World

RSC Residential School in Medicinal Chemistry – book your place now!

01 Apr 2011

By Richard Kelly.

Don’t miss out on early bird registration for the RSC’s Residential School in Medicinal Chemistry, being held this year at Burleigh Court Conference Centre at Loughborough University on 4-8 July 2011.

For over 30 years this course has been regarded as the pre-eminent industry training course for medicinal chemists. It brings together cross-industry and cross-discipline practitioners to provide lectures, tutorials, workshops and case-studies illustrating modern drug discovery. This provides an excellent training opportunity for young medicinal chemists. The course also provides a refresher for those who are more experienced but wish to expand their knowledge or offers an introduction to drug design thinking for any scientist working in cross-functional discovery teams. In addition, the opportunity to network with and learn from highly experienced medicinal chemistry professionals is the unique feature of this training school. For the training content and list of course tutors, please see www.rsc.org/medchemtraining

The early bird registration for this event will close on 1st April (although standard registration will remain open until 13th May). Places can be secured quickly and simply via the online booking system. Please note that previous courses have been oversubscribed so please encourage interested parties to register early to be sure of their place!

To find course details, register online and download flyers visit: www.rsc.org/medchemtraining

Comments Off on RSC Residential School in Medicinal Chemistry – book your place now!

HOT Article: A step forward in the fight against cancer

01 Apr 2011

By Sarah Dixon.

Novel water soluble bis(1,10-phenanthroline)octanedioate Cu²⁺ and Mn²⁺ complexes synthesised by researchers in Ireland and the US show extremely high cytotoxicity, encouraging cytoselectivity against cancer cells.

Mononuclear [Cu(phen)₂(phthalate)] complexes have been shown to display excellent chemotherapeutic potential against colon, breast and prostate cancer lines, but their water solubility is poor making them difficult to deliver in the body. This inspired Andrew Kellett, Michael Devereux and colleagues to build upon the most active chemotherapeutic agents in this class of compounds and develop more potent water soluble versions.

Both complexes displayed greater in vivo drug tolerance compared to cisplatin, a commonly used chemotherapy drug, when examined using the insect Galleria mellonella.

Read more now in the MedChemComm article that is free to download!

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, DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00266F

Comments Off on HOT Article: A step forward in the fight against cancer

HOT article: anionic gold nanoparticles for multi-strain flu virus inhibition

15 Mar 2011

By Francesca Burgoyne.

One of the difficulties in vaccinating against annual flu pandemics is the myriad of different virus strains and the ability of the virus to rapidly mutate – which occurs so much faster than vaccine development.

Excitingly, however, Aharon Gedanken from Bar-Ilan University and colleagues from the Israeli Ministry of Health have developed a method of virus inhibition effective against several different strains, including H1N1 (swine flu). By using gold nanoparticles with anionic surface functional groups mercaptoethanesulfonate or mercaptosuccinic acid, the researchers were able to inhibit infection in MDCK cells, with no cytotoxic side effects. They believe the mode of action is due to the nanoparticles preventing the virus from attaching to the cell surface, but further research is currently under way to determine the exact mechanism.

This HOT article is currently free to access – download it today!

Effective multi-strain inhibition of influenza virus by anionic gold nanoparticles
Matias Sametband, Sourabh Shukla, Tal Meningher, Shira Hirsh, Ella Mendelson, Ronit Sarid, Aharon Gedanken and Michal Mandelboim
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00229A

Comments Off on HOT article: anionic gold nanoparticles for multi-strain flu virus inhibition

MedChemComm Issue 3 is here

10 Mar 2011

By Lorena Tomas Laudo.

Welcome to MedChemComm Issue 3!

In this new issue, you’ll find a new collection of exciting papers on medicinal chemistry research, which you can download for free!

This month’s menu includes:

– The importance of solvation in the design of ligands targeting membrane proteins

– Repairing faulty genes by aminoglycosides: Identification of new pharmacophore with enhanced suppression of disease-causing nonsense mutations

– Synthesis and anti HSV-1 evaluation of novel indole-3,4-diones

– Novel indolizine compounds as potent inhibitors of phosphodiesterase IV (PDE4): structure–activity relationship

– Scaffold-hopping from aminoglycosides to small synthetic inhibitors of bacterial protein biosynthesis using a pseudoreceptor model

– The discovery of a novel prototype small molecule TLR7 agonist for the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection

– Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel ferrocenyl curcuminoid derivatives

– Interactions of polysulfanes with components of red blood cells

– Structure-based design, synthesis, and profiling of potent and selective neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) inhibitors with an amidinothiophene hydroxypiperidine scaffold

– Carba-LNA modified siRNAs targeting HIV-1 TAR region downregulate HIV-1 replication successfully with enhanced potency

That is a great selection, isn’t it? We hope you enjoy it and you find it enlightening.

Comments Off on MedChemComm Issue 3 is here

HOT perspective: drug discovery – overweight and in need of a psychologist?

09 Mar 2011

By Francesca Burgoyne.

In this interesting review Michael Hann from GSK gives his take on why it is becoming harder and harder to bring drugs to market. The finger of blame, he suggests, points not just towards regulatory hurdles but to our ideas about the drug discovery process itself.

As well as examining the causes of failure in drug discovery in terms of lead candidate properties, he also takes a look at the behavioural psychology of the medicinal chemist. Hann suggests that the quest for the potency borders on addiction, and that while potency is an important aspect of drug design, it should not necessarily be the overarching goal. His reason – that the search for potency can lead to molecules that are too large and liphophilic to make it to market. He ironically coins the term ‘molecular obesity‘ to describe the risk that this presents to the fitness of lead compounds.

Whether you agree with Hann on the cause of failure or not, the 95% attrition rate of pharma R&D is indisputable; it would appear that drug discovery is in need of a check-up.

Download this though-provoking review today – it’s free to access until April:

Molecular obesity, potency and other addictions in drug discovery
Michael M. Hann
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00017A

Comments Off on HOT perspective: drug discovery – overweight and in need of a psychologist?

RSC Medicinal Chemistry Blog

Top ten most accessed articles in March

MedChemComm delighted to meet authors!

HOT article: potential new G-quadruplex ligands

Molecular obesity is weighing down drug discovery-MedChemComm in Chemistry World

RSC Residential School in Medicinal Chemistry – book your place now!

HOT Article: A step forward in the fight against cancer

Top ten most accessed articles in February

HOT article: anionic gold nanoparticles for multi-strain flu virus inhibition

MedChemComm Issue 3 is here

HOT perspective: drug discovery – overweight and in need of a psychologist?

Links

Categories

Archives

Meta