oa Editorial [Hot Topic:Methodologies and Applied Strategies in the Rational Drug Design (Guest Editor: T. Mavromoustakos)]

This special issue is dedicated to my former and inspired director of Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry of the National Hellenic Research Foundation Dr. N. Oikonomakos who left this short life early. It is also dedicated to the scientists who use the research amour for advancing our knowledge in the treatment of major diseases and rationalize the drug design. Both experimentalists and theoreticians join their efforts in a complementary and hopefully in a successful way to achieve a common research aim: to develop newer, safer and more effective drugs. Various interesting topics related to the rational drug design are covered in this special issue including: the use of multitarget drugs specifically on the cardiovascular system; the future of aldo-keto reductase AKRIC1-AKRIC4, CRF and PLA2 inhibitors; the develop of pharmacophore modeling and virtual screening strategies as well as the combination of x-ray diffraction, molecular docking and 3D QSAR methodologies for the advancement of rational drug design. I believe that this issue covers interesting approaches in the drug discovery and provides valuable information for those scientists working in the field of drug rational design. In addition, the reader will find interesting information in a condensed matter for the trends to tackle major diseases such as cardiovascular, cancer, inflammation,diabetes,depression and anxiety.