Elsevier Small Molecule Drug Discovery: Methods, Molecules and Applications

Product Description Small Molecule Drug Discovery: Methods, Molecules and Applications presents the methods used to identify bioactive small molecules, synthetic strategies and techniques to produce novel chemical entities and small molecule libraries, chemoinformatics to characterize and enumerate chemical libraries, and screening methods, including biophysical techniques, virtual screening and phenotypic screening. The second part of the book gives an overview of privileged cyclic small molecules and major classes of natural product-derived small molecules, including carbohydrate-derived compounds, peptides and peptidomimetics, and alkaloid-inspired compounds. The last section comprises an exciting collection of selected case studies on drug discovery enabled by small molecules in the fields of cancer research, CNS diseases and infectious diseases. The discovery of novel molecular entities capable of specific interactions represents a significant challenge in early drug discovery. Small molecules are low molecular weight organic compounds that include natural products and metabolites, as well as drugs and other xenobiotics. When the biological target is well defined and understood, the rational design of small molecule ligands is possible. Alternatively, small molecule libraries are being used for unbiased assays for complex diseases where a target is unknown or multiple factors contribute to a disease pathology. Review Outlines modern concepts and synthetic strategies underlying the building of small molecules and their chemical libraries useful for drug discovery From the Back Cover The discovery of novel molecular entities capable of specific interactions represents a significant challenge in early drug discovery. Small molecules are low molecular weight organic compounds that include natural products and metabolites, as well as drugs and other xenobiotics. When the biological target is well defined and understood, the rational design of small molecule ligands is possible. Alternatively, small molecule libraries are being used for unbiased assays for complex diseases where a target is unknown or multiple factors contribute to a disease pathology. Small Molecule Drug Discovery addresses methods, molecules and applications of small molecules drug discovery, including contributions on the methods used to identify bioactive small molecules, synthetic strategies and techniques to produce novel chemical entities and small molecule libraries, chemoinformatics to characterize and enumerate chemical libraries, and screening methods, including biophysical techniques, virtual screening and phenotypic screening. The second part of the book gives an overview of privileged cyclic small molecules and major classes of natural product-derived small molecules, including carbohydrate-derived compounds, peptides and peptidomimetics, and alkaloid-inspired compounds. The last section comprises an exciting collection of selected case studies on drug discovery enabled by small molecules in the fields of cancer research, CNS diseases and infectious diseases. About the Author Andrea Trabocchi is Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Florence, Italy, where his research and teaching activity are focused on organic synthesis and drug discovery. He received training on peptide chemistry at the Imperial College, UK, and obtained the PhD in Chemical Sciences in 2003 from the University of Florence. In 2016 he received the specialization in Clinical Biochemistry from the University of Rome-Tor Vergata. His research interests lie in the area of small molecules, including diversity-oriented synthesis, chemoinformatics and applications in cancer and CNS diseases. Previous editorial appointments included an edited book on Diversity Oriented Synthesis and an authored book on Peptidomimetics. Elena Lenci received the Doctor Europaeus PhD in Chemical Science in 2017 from the University of Flore