Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 29, Issue 29, 2022

Major Depressive Disorder is a chronic, recurring, and potentially fatal disease, affecting up to 20% of the global population. Since the monoamine hypothesis was proposed more than 60 years ago, only a few relevant advances have been made, with very little disease course changing from a pharmacological perspective. Moreover, since the negative efficacy of novel molecules is frequently reported in studies, many pharmaceutical companies have put new studies on hold. Fortunately, relevant clinical studies are currently being performed extensively, developing immense interest among universities, research centers, and other public and private institutions. Depression is no longer considered a simple disease but a multifactorial one. New research fields are emerging, occurring a paradigm shift, such as the multi-target approach beyond monoamines. In this review, we summarize antidepressant drug discovery aiming to shed some light on the current state-of-the-art clinical and preclinical advances to face this increasingly devastating disease.

A homomultimeric radioligand is composed of multiple identical ligands connected to the linker and radionuclide to detect a variety of overexpressed receptors on cancer cells. Multimer strategy holds great potential for introducing new radiotracers based on peptide and monoclonal antibody (mAb) derivatives in molecular imaging and therapy. It offers a reliable procedure for the preparation of biological-based targeting with diverse affinities and pharmacokinetics. In this context, we provide a useful summary and interpretation of the main results by a comprehensive look at multimeric radiopharmaceuticals in nuclear oncology. Therefore, explanations for the strategy mechanisms and the main variables affecting the biodistribution results will be explained. The discussion is followed by highlights of recent work in the targeting of various types of receptors. The consequences are expressed based on comparing some parameters between monomer and multimer counterparts in each relevant section.

Background: Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Many anticancer drugs are commercially available, but lack of selectivity, target specificity, cytotoxicity, and development of resistance lead to serious side effects. Several experiments have been going on to develop compounds with minor or no side effects. Objective: This review mainly emphasizes synthetic strategies, SAR studies, and mechanism of action if thiazole, benzothiazole, and imidazothiazole-containing compounds as anticancer agents. Methods: Recent literature related to thiazole and thiazole-related derivatives endowed with encouraging anticancer potential is reviewed. This review emphasizes contemporary strategies used for the synthesis of thiazole and related derivatives, mechanistic targets, and comprehensive structural activity relationship studies to provide perspective into the rational design of high-efficiency thiazole-based anticancer drug candidates. Results: Exhaustive literature survey indicated that thiazole derivatives are associated with properties of inducing apoptosis and disturbing tubulin assembly. Thiazoles are also associated with the inhibition of NFkB/mTOR/PI3K/AkT and regulation of estrogenmediated activity. Furthermore, thiazole derivatives have been found to modulate critical targets, such as topoisomerase and HDAC. Conclusion: Thiazole derivatives seem to be quite competent and act through various mechanisms. Some of the thiazole derivatives, such as compounds 29, 40, 62, and 74a with IC50 values of 0.05 μM, 0.00042 μM, 0.18 μM, and 0.67 μM, respectively, not only exhibit anticancer activity, but they also have lower toxicity and better absorption. Therefore, some other similar compounds could be investigated to aid in the development of anticancer pharmacophores.

Janus Kinase (JAK), a nonreceptor protein tyrosine kinase, has emerged as an excellent target through research and development since its discovery in the 1990s. As novel small-molecule targeted drugs, JAK inhibitor drugs have been successfully used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), myelofibrosis (MF), and ulcerative colitis (UC). With the gradual development of JAK targets in the market, JAK inhibitors have also received considerable feedback in the treatment of autoimmune diseases, such as atopic dermatitis (AD), Crohn's disease (CD), and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). This article reviews the research progress of JAK inhibitor drugs, focusing on the existing JAK inhibitors in the market and some JAK inhibitors in clinical trials currently. In addition, the synthesis of various types of JAK inhibitors and the effects of different drug structures on drug inhibition and selectivity are summarized.