The Potential of Micellar Media in the Synthesis of DNA-Encoded Libraries.

DNA-encoded library (DEL) technology has become widely used in drug discovery research. The construction of DELs requires robust organic transformations that proceed in aqueous media under mild conditions. Unfortunately, the application of water as reaction medium for organic synthesis is not evident due to the generally limited solubility of organic reagents.

Use of Biodegradable, Chitosan-Based Nanoparticles in the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects more than 24 million people worldwide and represents an immense medical, social and economic burden. While a vast array of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) is available for the prevention and possibly treatment of AD, applicability is limited by the selective nature of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) as well as by their severe peripheral side effects. A promising solution to these problems is the incorporation of anti-Alzheimer drugs in polymeric nanoparticles (NPs).

Cannabis Constituents and Acetylcholinesterase Interaction: Molecular Docking, In Vitro Studies and Association with rs and .

The study documented here was aimed to find the molecular interactions of some of the cannabinoid constituents of cannabis with acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Molecular docking and LogP determination were performed to predict the AChE inhibitory effect and lipophilicity. AChE enzyme activity was measured in the blood of cannabis addicted human subjects.

Novel continuous flow technology for the development of a nanostructured aprepitant formulation with improved pharmacokinetic properties.

The oral bioavailability of Aprepitant is limited by poor dissolution of the compound in the gastrointestinal tract which is more prominent in the fasted state resulting in significant positive food effect. Due to the low aqueous solubility of the active substance the product development has been focused on decreasing the particle size of the active compound down to the submicron range in order to overcome this disadvantageous pharmacokinetic property. The marketed drug consisting of wet-milled nanocrystals exhibits significantly higher oral bioavailability in the fasted state and reduced food effect when compared to the unformulated compound.

Medicinal chemistry of drugs with active metabolites following conjugation.

Authorities of Drug Administration in the United States of America approved about 5000 drugs for use in the therapy or management of several diseases. About two hundred of these drugs have active metabolites and the knowledge of their medicinal chemistry is important both in medical practice and pharmaceutical research. This review gives a detailed description of the medicinal chemistry of drugs with active metabolites generated after conjugation.

Phosphine-phosphite ligands: chelate ring size vs. activity and enantioselectivity relationships in asymmetric hydrogenation.

A series of new phosphine-phosphite ligands P(C)(n)OP (n = 1-4) have been synthesized and used for rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral olefins in order to study the effect of the chelate ring size. Excellent ees (up to 97.5%) were obtained in the hydrogenation of dimethyl itaconate and an increase of activity and enantioselectivity was observed in the hydrogenation of (Z)-α-acetamidocinnamic acid methyl ester with the increasing length of the backbone of the ligands.

Stepwise aromatic nucleophilic substitution in continuous flow. Synthesis of an unsymmetrically substituted 3,5-diamino-benzonitrile library.

Aromatic or heteroaromatic ring precursors with 2-3 identical functionalities are often used in sequential derivatization depending on the reactivity difference or the selective execution of the reaction such as nucleophilic aromatic substitution. Continuous flow chemistry offers an enhanced parameter space (pressure and temperature) with rapid parameter optimization that ensures selectivity in many cases. We developed a flow chemistry procedure to carry out a stepwise aromatic nucleophilic substitution of difluoro-benzenes having an activating group in meta position to the fluorines.

Monitoring by HPLC of chamomile flavonoids exposed to rat liver microsomal metabolism.

Three major flavonoid chamomile components (quercetin, apigenin-7-O-glucoside and rutin) were subjected to oxidative metabolism by cytochrome P-450 of rat liver microsomal preparations. Changes over time in their respective concentrations were followed using reversed-phase HPLC with UV detection. No clean-up had to be applied as only the specific flavonoid had to be separated from the background components originating from the rat liver microsome.

High-efficiency aminocarbonylation by introducing CO to a pressurized continuous flow reactor.

Halogenated aryl carboxylic acids were efficiently converted to the corresponding dicarboxylic acid monoamides by a one-step Pd-catalyzed aminocarbonylation in a micro/meso fluidic continuous flow reactor (X-Cube) operated at high pressure and high temperature with CO gas introduction. Reaction parameters (solvent, base, catalyst, pressure, temperature) were rapidly optimized in the reactions, which required less than 2 min. The method gave improved results over comparable batch techniques and is also suited to automated parallel syntheses of compound libraries.

Enhanced hit-to-lead process using bioanalogous lead evolution and chemogenomics: application in designing selective matrix metalloprotease inhibitors.

The authors describe an innovative approach for designing novel inhibitors. This approach effectively integrates the emerging chemogenomics concept of target-family-based drug discovery with bioanalogous design strategies, including privileged structures, molecular frameworks as well as bioisosteric and bioanalogous/isofunctional modifications. The authors applied this method in the design of selective inhibitors of matrix metalloproteases (MMPs), also referred to as matrixins, on the basis of a unique analysis of the ligand-target knowledge base, the 'matrixinome'.

[Comparative chemical proteomics: simultaneous identification of disease-specific protein targets and their small molecule-binding partners, suitable as drug candidates].

The simultaneous identification of disease-specific protein targets and their small molecule binding partners, suitable as drug candidates, could radically reduce the timeline and costs of drug discovery and development. Comparative chemical proteomics provides a novel approach to achieve this goal through rapid detection of overexpressed proteins in diseased samples by the application of small molecule microarrays. The interacting small molecules enables direct affinity-based isolation and identification of the proteins.

Explicit Diversity Index (EDI): a novel measure for assessing the diversity of compound databases.

A novel diversity assessment method, the Explicit Diversity Index (EDI), is introduced for druglike molecules. EDI combines structural and synthesis-related dissimilarity values and expresses them as a single number. As an easily interpretable measure, it facilitates the decision making in the design of combinatorial libraries, and it might assist in the comparison of compound sets provided by different manufacturers.

Solution-phase parallel synthesis of a pyridinium pyrazol-3-olate inner salt library using a three-component reaction.

We present here the discovery of a novel, versatile, multicomponent reaction leading to various 4-[4-(pyridinium-1-yl)-2,5-dioxo-2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrol-3-yl]-2H-pyrazol-3-olate inner salts. The structure of the unusual zwitterionic inner salts was elucidated, and the scope of the novel reaction was investigated. After rapid optimization, the reaction was adapted to parallel synthesis, and an 800-membered compound library was produced.

Continuous-flow high pressure hydrogenation reactor for optimization and high-throughput synthesis.

This paper reports on a novel continuous-flow hydrogenation reactor and its integration with a liquid handler to generate a fully automated high-throughput hydrogenation system for library synthesis. The reactor, named the H-Cube, combines endogenous hydrogen generation from the electrolysis of water with a continuous flow-through system. The system makes significant advances over current batch hydrogenation reactors in terms of safety, reaction validation efficiency, and rates of reaction.

A neural network based classification scheme for cytotoxicity predictions:Validation on 30,000 compounds.

Elimination of cytotoxic compounds in the early phases of drug discovery can save substantial amounts of research and development costs. An artificial neural network based approach using atomic fragmental descriptors has been developed to categorize compounds according to their in vitro human cytotoxicity. Fragmental descriptors were obtained from the Atomic7 linear logP calculation method implemented in Pallas PrologP program.

Procedure for the parallel preparation of 3-imidazo[1,2-a]pyridin-3-yl-propionic acid derivatives involving Meldrum's acid.

We describe here an efficient and versatile method for the preparation of 3-imidazo[1,2-a]pyridin-3-yl-propionic acids involving, as a key step, a three-component Michael-type reaction. The extended and validated procedure allowed us to prepare various acids with three diversity points. The method was easily adaptable for parallel synthesis and an approximately 2000-membered 3-imidazo[1,2-a]pyridin-3-yl-propionic acid amide library was prepared in a semiautomated manner.

A neural network based prediction of octanol-water partition coefficients using atomic5 fragmental descriptors.

An artificial neural network based approach using Atomic5 fragmental descriptors has been developed to predict the octanol-water partition coefficient (logP). We used a pre-selected set of organic molecules from PHYSPROP database as training and test sets for a feedforward neural network. Results demonstrate the superiority of our non-linear model over the traditional linear method.

Development of chemically modified glass surfaces for nucleic acid, protein and small molecule microarrays.

Microarrays have become a widely used tool to investigate the living cell at different levels. DNA microarrays enable the expression analysis of thousand of genes simultaneously, while protein arrays investigate the properties and interactions of proteins with other proteins and with non-proteinaceous molecules. One crucial step in producing such microarrays is the permanent immobilization of samples on a solid surface.

In Silico and Ex silico ADME approaches for drug discovery.

The high attrition rate of drug candidates during clinical trials for poor pharmacokinetic and metabolic properties has created a need to do these studies as early as it is possible during the drug discovery process. In addition the most successful drug is often not the most potent one but the one that has the suitable level of potency, safety, and pharmacokinetics. Science and technology development during the last few years and the generation of last databases and information has created the basis for doing early experimental PK and ADME studies in addition to eADME.