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Macrocycles in Drug Discovery

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2019) | Viewed by 7034

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Drug Design, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Interests: multicomponent reaction chemistry; drug discovery; automation in synthetic chemistry; super artificial intelligence; artificial macrocycles

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Guest Editor
Drug Design Group, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Interests: drug discovery; catalysis; nano technology; robotics; organic synthesis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Macrocycles are a ring architecture of 12 or more atoms that allows them to highly dynamically adapt to large receptor surfaces, e.g. in protein–protein interactions (PPIs). Macrocycles cover the chemical space between small molecules and monoclonal antibodies (mABs) and potentially combine the best of the two worlds. Recent progress in the synthetic accessibility of the macrocycle space (e.g. DEL, MCR) open new opportunities to answer pressing questions in the field: What is the relationship between the 2D space and the 3D conformational hyperspace and drug-like properties? How can drug-like properties be designed into macrocyclic structures? What structural features will help to increase passive membrane permeation? Can design rules be elaborated to increase the drug likeliness of macrocycles? How can the success rate of virtual screening methods for macrocycles be enhanced? Much greater understanding of the relationship between the conformational and biological space must be generated. Such knowledge will propel macrocycles into the league of next generation drugs. Novel design and synthetic strategies to provide different classes of macrocycles will grow the impact of macrocyles on drug discovery.

This Special Issue aims to highlight multiple aspects of macrocycles, from synthetic chemistry to conformational design, to applications in drug discovery and computational screening methods.

Prof. Dr. Alexander Dömling
Dr. Shabnam Shaabani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Macrocycles
  • Synthetic Macrocycles
  • Natural Product Macrocycles
  • 2D Space
  • 3D Space
  • Drug Discovery
  • Synthesis
  • Conformation
  • Computational Screening
  • Drug Design
  • Property Design
  • Membrane Permeation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2038 KiB  
Article
Synthesis of Lactam-Bridged and Lipidated Cyclo-Peptides as Promising Anti-Phytopathogenic Agents
by Aldrin V. Vasco, Martina Brode, Yanira Méndez, Oscar Valdés, Daniel G. Rivera and Ludger A. Wessjohann
Molecules 2020, 25(4), 811; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25040811 - 13 Feb 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3345
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance to conventional antibiotics and the limited alternatives to combat plant-threatening pathogens are worldwide problems. Antibiotic lipopeptides exert remarkable membrane activity, which usually is not prone to fast resistance formation, and often show organism-type selectivity. Additional modes of action commonly complement the [...] Read more.
Antimicrobial resistance to conventional antibiotics and the limited alternatives to combat plant-threatening pathogens are worldwide problems. Antibiotic lipopeptides exert remarkable membrane activity, which usually is not prone to fast resistance formation, and often show organism-type selectivity. Additional modes of action commonly complement the bioactivity profiles of such compounds. The present work describes a multicomponent-based methodology for the synthesis of cyclic polycationic lipopeptides with stabilized helical structures. The protocol comprises an on solid support Ugi-4-component macrocyclization in the presence of a lipidic isocyanide. Circular dichroism was employed to study the influence of both macrocyclization and lipidation on the amphiphilic helical structure in water and micellar media. First bioactivity studies against model phytopathogens demonstrated a positive effect of the lipidation on the antimicrobial activity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Macrocycles in Drug Discovery)
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27 pages, 8540 KiB  
Article
A Candidate for Multitopic Probes for Ligand Discovery in Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry
by Keiko Yoneyama, Rina Suzuki, Yusuke Kuramochi and Akiharu Satake
Molecules 2019, 24(11), 2166; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24112166 - 8 Jun 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3073
Abstract
Multifunctionalized materials are expected to be versatile probes to find specific interactions between a ligand and a target biomaterial. Thus, efficient methods to prepare possible combinations of the functionalities is desired. The concept of dynamic combinatorial chemistry (DCC) is ideal for the generation [...] Read more.
Multifunctionalized materials are expected to be versatile probes to find specific interactions between a ligand and a target biomaterial. Thus, efficient methods to prepare possible combinations of the functionalities is desired. The concept of dynamic combinatorial chemistry (DCC) is ideal for the generation of any possible combination, as well as screening for target biomaterials. Here, we propose a new molecular design of multitopic probes for ligand discovery in DCC. We synthesized a new Gable Porphyrin, GP1, having prop-2-yne groups as a scaffold to introduce various functional groups. GP1 is a bis(imidazolylporphyrinatozinc) compound connected through a 1,3-phenylene moiety, and it gives macrocycles spontaneously and quantitatively by strong imidazole-to-zinc complementary coordination. Some different types of functional groups were introduced into GP1 in high yields. Formation of heterogeneous macrocycles composed of GP1 derivatives having different types of substituents was accomplished under equilibrium conditions. These results promise that enormous numbers of macrocycles having various functional groups can be provided when the kinds of GP components increase. These features are desirable for DCC, and the present system using GP1 is a potential candidate to provide a dynamic combinatorial library of multitopic probes to discover specific interactions between a ligand and a biomaterial. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Macrocycles in Drug Discovery)
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