Rational Design of Chitin Deacetylase Inhibitors for Sustainable Agricultural Use Based on Molecular Topology.

Fungicide resistance is a major concern in modern agriculture; therefore, there is a pressing demand to develop new, greener chemicals. Chitin is a major component of the fungal cell wall and a well-known elicitor of plant immunity. To overcome chitin recognition, fungal pathogens developed different strategies, with chitin deacetylase (CDA) activity being the most conserved.

How Molecular Topology Can Help in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Drug Development: A Revolutionary Paradigm for a Merciless Disease.

Even if amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is still considered an orphan disease to date, its prevalence among the population is growing fast. Despite the efforts made by researchers and pharmaceutical companies, the cryptic information related to the biological and physiological onset mechanisms, as well as the complexity in identifying specific pharmacological targets, make it almost impossible to find effective treatments. Furthermore, because of complex ethical and economic aspects, it is usually hard to find all the necessary resources when searching for drugs for new orphan diseases.

Molecular Topology QSAR Strategy for Crop Protection: New Natural Fungicides with Chitin Inhibitory Activity.

Nowadays, crop protection is a major concern and how to proceed is a delicate point of contention. New products must be safe and ecofriendly in accordance with the actual legislation. In this context, we present a quantitative structure-activity relationship strategy based on molecular topology as a tool for generating natural products as potential fungicides following a mechanism of action based on the synthesis of chitin inhibition (chitinase inhibition).

What place does molecular topology have in today's drug discovery?

Introduction: Most methods in molecular and drug design are currently based on physicochemical descriptors. However, molecular topology, which relies on topological descriptors, has also shown value for molecular design even if it does not take into account the physical or chemical properties of ligands and receptors, including the ligand-receptor interaction itself.

Areas Covered: Herein, the authors provide new insights into the importance of molecular topology according to some of the latest discoveries in physics and chemistry.

DesMol2, an Effective Tool for the Construction of Molecular Libraries and Its Application to QSAR Using Molecular Topology.

A web application, DesMol2, which offers two main functionalities, is presented: the construction of molecular libraries and the calculation of topological indices. These functionalities are explained through a practical example of research of active molecules to the formylpeptide receptor (FPR), a receptor associated with chronic inflammation in systemic amyloidosis and Alzheimer's disease. Starting from a data(base) of 106 dioxopiperazine pyrrolidin piperazine derivatives and their respective constant values of binding affinity to FPR, multilinear regression and discriminant analyses are performed to calculate several predictive topological-mathematical models.