Hit to Lead Design of New Anti-Infective Drugs

A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2024) | Viewed by 2869

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CNRS, ICR UMR 7273, Team Pharmaco-Chimie Radicalaire, Faculté de Pharmacie, Aix Marseille University, 27 Boulevard Jean Moulin, CS30064, CEDEX 05, 13385 Marseille, France
Interests: medicinal chemistry; anti-infectious; anti-proliferative, anti-viral, heterocycles; nitroimidazoles; monoelectronic transfer; organic electron donors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. CNRS, ICR UMR 7273, Team Pharmaco-Chimie Radicalaire, Faculté de Pharmacie, Aix Marseille University, 27 Boulevard Jean Moulin, CS30064, CEDEX 05, 13385 Marseille, France
2. APHM, Pharmacy Department, Service Central de la Qualité et de l'Information Pharmaceutiques, 147 Bd Baille, 13005 Marseille, France
Interests: medicinal chemistry; heterocyclic chemistry; Plasmodium; Leishmania; Trypanosoma; nitroheterocycles
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Infectious diseases are still responsible for a very high number of deaths worldwide, and mainly affect low- and moderate-income countries according to the WHO. These diseases are mainly communicable, although there are some non-communicable infectious diseases, such as parasitic diseases in which the life cycle of the parasite does not rely on inter-individual direct transmission. They are caused by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi.

While significant progress has been made in recent years in treating these, notably in preventing sleeping sickness with the introduction of fexinidazole, many efforts remain to be made. This is especially true in areas like tuberculosis or fungal infections.

The COVID-19 crisis has brutally revived the awareness of the loss of control that humanity could suffer in failing to contain the spread of infectious diseases. It also highlighted the problem of virus mutation. More broadly, whatever the pathogens involved, the pathogenic resistance poses a real threat to patient care, and it is increasingly urgent to identify and develop anti-infective agents with new mechanisms of action. 

Hit-to-lead (H2L), also known as lead generation, is a powerful strategy used in early drug discovery. In this method, small molecule hits from high-throughput screening (HTS) are evaluated and optimized to identify promising lead compounds.  

The aim of this Special Issue is to summarize the state of the art and the latest findings in the field of the hit-to-lead design of new anti-infective drugs, as well as to elucidate future directions. 

Prof. Dr. Patrice Vanelle
Dr. Nicolas Primas
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • hit-to-lead
  • small molecules
  • drug discovery
  • infectious disease
  • bacterial infections
  • fungal infections
  • parasitic infections
  • viral infections
  • communicable disease
  • drug candidates

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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14 pages, 2943 KiB  
Article
Small Molecules Incorporating Privileged Amidine Moiety as Potential Hits Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
by Selwan M. El-Sayed, Samar A. Ahmed, Kanika Gulia, Justin R. Lenhard, Ahmed H.E. Hassan and Abdelbasset A. Farahat
Pharmaceuticals 2023, 16(7), 1040; https://doi.org/10.3390/ph16071040 - 22 Jul 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1611
Abstract
The continuing need for the discovery of potent antibacterial agents against antibiotic-resistant pathogens is the driving force for many researchers to design and develop such agents. Herein, we report the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of amidine derivatives as new antibacterial agents. Compound [...] Read more.
The continuing need for the discovery of potent antibacterial agents against antibiotic-resistant pathogens is the driving force for many researchers to design and develop such agents. Herein, we report the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of amidine derivatives as new antibacterial agents. Compound 13d was the most active in this study against a wide range of antibiotic-resistant, and susceptible, Gram-positive, and Gram-negative bacterial strains. Time–kill assay experiments indicated that compound 13d was an effective bactericidal compound against the tested organisms at the log-phase of bacterial growth. Docking simulations were performed to assess in silico its mode of action regarding UPPS, KARI, and DNA as potential bacterial targets. Results unveiled the importance of structural features of compound 13d in its biological activity including central thiophene ring equipped with left and right pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine and phenyl moieties and two terminal amidines cyclized into 4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazol-2-yl functionalities. Collectively, compound 13d represents a possible hit for future development of potent antibacterial agents. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hit to Lead Design of New Anti-Infective Drugs)
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42 pages, 2285 KiB  
Review
From the “One-Molecule, One-Target, One-Disease” Concept towards Looking for Multi-Target Therapeutics for Treating Non-Polio Enterovirus (NPEV) Infections
by Hugo Roux, Franck Touret, Pascal Rathelot, Patrice Vanelle and Manon Roche
Pharmaceuticals 2024, 17(9), 1218; https://doi.org/10.3390/ph17091218 - 16 Sep 2024
Viewed by 654
Abstract
Non-polio enteroviruses (NPEVs), namely coxsackieviruses (CV), echoviruses (E), enteroviruses (EV), and rhinoviruses (RV), are responsible for a wide variety of illnesses. Some infections can progress to life-threatening conditions in children or immunocompromised patients. To date, no treatments have been approved. Several molecules have [...] Read more.
Non-polio enteroviruses (NPEVs), namely coxsackieviruses (CV), echoviruses (E), enteroviruses (EV), and rhinoviruses (RV), are responsible for a wide variety of illnesses. Some infections can progress to life-threatening conditions in children or immunocompromised patients. To date, no treatments have been approved. Several molecules have been evaluated through clinical trials without success. To overcome these failures, the multi-target directed ligand (MTDL) strategy could be applied to tackle enterovirus infections. This work analyzes registered clinical trials involving antiviral drugs to highlight the best candidates and develops filters to apply to a selection for MTDL synthesis. We explicitly stated the methods used to answer the question: which solution can fight NPEVs effectively? We note the originality and relevance of this proposal in relation to the state of the art in the enterovirus-inhibitors field. Several combinations are possible to broaden the antiviral spectrum and potency. We discuss data related to the virus and data related to each LEAD compound identified so far. Overall, this study proposes a perspective on different strategies to overcome issues identified in clinical trials and evaluate the “MTDL” potential to improve the efficacy of drugs, broaden the antiviral targets, possibly reduce the adverse effects, drug design costs and limit the selection of drug-resistant virus variants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hit to Lead Design of New Anti-Infective Drugs)
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