Feature Papers in Drug Discovery

A topical collection in Biomedicines (ISSN 2227-9059). This collection belongs to the section "Drug Discovery, Development and Delivery".

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Collection Editor
Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Interests: diabetes; obesity; cancer; non-communicalbe diseases; marine natural compounds; fucoidan; seaweed; clams; food chemistry; pharmacology; drug metabolism; pharmacokinetics; pre-clinical pharmacology; natural compound extraction; polyamine metabolism; marine bioactives
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Topical Collection Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Topical Collection, titled “Feature Papers in Drug Discovery and Development”, aims to collect high-quality research articles and review articles in drug discovery and development with a focus on biomedical research. Since the aim of this topical collection is to showcase innovative research in biomedical science, we encourage Editorial Board Members of Biomedicines to contribute papers which reflect the latest progress in their research field or to invite relevant experts and colleagues to do so. Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • ADME in drug discovery and development;
  • Medicinal chemistry in drug discovery;
  • Natural compounds in drug discovery;
  • Nanomedicine;
  • Structure-activity-relationship in drug discovery and development;
  • Functional biomolecules;
  • Functional biomaterials;
  • Pharmacology in drug discovery;
  • Pharmacology in drug development;
  • Genetics in drug discovery;
  • Bioinformatics in drug discovery and development;
  • Supramolecular biomedicine;
  • Preclinical model in drug discovery and development;
  • Orphan drugs;
  • Novel molecular targets in drug discovery;
  • Novel application of old drugs;
  • Alternative medicine;
  • Adverse drug reactions.

Prof. Dr. Jun Lu
Collection Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomedicines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion in drug discovery and development
  • medicinal chemistry in drug discovery
  • natural compounds in drug discovery
  • nanomedicine
  • structure-activity-relationship in drug discovery and development
  • functional biomolecules
  • functional biomaterials
  • pharmacology in drug discovery
  • pharmacology in drug development
  • genetics in drug discovery
  • bioinformatics in drug discovery and development
  • supramolecular biomedicine
  • preclinical model in drug discovery development
  • orphan drugs
  • novel molecular targets in drug discovery
  • novel application of old drugs
  • alternative medicine
  • and adverse drug reactions

Published Papers (4 papers)

2023

Jump to: 2022

15 pages, 822 KiB  
Article
A Pharmacovigilance Study on the Safety of Axicabtagene Ciloleucel Based on Spontaneous Reports from the EudraVigilance Database
by Concetta Rafaniello, Valerio Liguori, Alessia Zinzi, Mario Gaio, Angela Falco, Luigi Di Costanzo, Francesca Gargano, Valentina Trimarco, Mauro Cataldi and Annalisa Capuano
Biomedicines 2023, 11(8), 2162; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines11082162 - 01 Aug 2023
Viewed by 1124
Abstract
During pre-approval clinical trials, the safety of axi-cel, a second-generation CAR-T-cell therapy directed against CD19, which dramatically improved the prognosis of intractable B-cell lymphomas, has been investigated only in about 400 patients. Therefore, additional information on this issue is urgently needed. In the [...] Read more.
During pre-approval clinical trials, the safety of axi-cel, a second-generation CAR-T-cell therapy directed against CD19, which dramatically improved the prognosis of intractable B-cell lymphomas, has been investigated only in about 400 patients. Therefore, additional information on this issue is urgently needed. In the present paper, we evaluated the 2905 ICSRs with axi-cel as the suspected drug that had been uploaded in the EudraVigilance database from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2022. About 80% of the reported adverse events were serious, and about 20% of them did not fully resolve or caused death. The adverse events most-frequently reported were Nervous system disorders (25.6%) and, among them, immune-effector-cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome, followed by Immune system disorders (23.1%), General disorders and administration site conditions (12.0%), Blood and lymphatic system disorders (7.2%), and Infections and infestations (5.8%). Disproportionality analysis showed that the frequency of reported adverse events related to the nervous system was higher with axi-cel than with the other approved CAR-T-cells, except brexu-cel. In conclusion, real-world pharmacovigilance data showed that nervous system and immune system disorders are the adverse events most reported in axi-cel-related ICSRs and suggest that axi-cel could be more neurotoxic than other CAR-T-cells. Full article
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26 pages, 1827 KiB  
Review
Anti-Inflammatory Therapeutic Mechanisms of Natural Products: Insight from Rosemary Diterpenes, Carnosic Acid and Carnosol
by Solomon Habtemariam
Biomedicines 2023, 11(2), 545; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines11020545 - 13 Feb 2023
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3447
Abstract
Carnosic acid (CA) and carnosol (CAR) are two major diterpenes of the rosemary plant (Rosmarinus officinalis). They possess a phenolic structural moiety and are endowed with the power to remove cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) either through direct scavenging reaction or [...] Read more.
Carnosic acid (CA) and carnosol (CAR) are two major diterpenes of the rosemary plant (Rosmarinus officinalis). They possess a phenolic structural moiety and are endowed with the power to remove cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) either through direct scavenging reaction or indirectly through upregulation of antioxidant defences. Hand in hand with these activities are their multiple biological effects and therapeutic potential orchestrated through modulating various signalling pathways of inflammation, including the NF-κB, MAPK, Nrf2, SIRT1, STAT3 and NLRP3 inflammasomes, among others. Consequently, they ameliorate the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (e.g., TNF-α, IL-1 and IL-6), adhesion molecules, chemokines and prostaglandins. These anti-inflammatory mechanisms of action as a therapeutic link to various effects of these compounds, as in many other natural products, are scrutinised. Full article
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2022

Jump to: 2023

16 pages, 4376 KiB  
Article
Plasmacytoma Variant Translocation 1 (PVT1) Gene as a Potential Novel Target for the Treatment of Diabetic Nephropathy
by Helen Mok, Ahmed Al-Jumaily and Jun Lu
Biomedicines 2022, 10(11), 2711; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10112711 - 26 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1336
Abstract
Introduction: Diabetic nephropathy (DN), a severe microvascular complication in patients with diabetes, is clinically characterized by progressive decline in glomerular filtration rate (GFR). DN is the most common cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), and has a consistently high mortality rate. Despite [...] Read more.
Introduction: Diabetic nephropathy (DN), a severe microvascular complication in patients with diabetes, is clinically characterized by progressive decline in glomerular filtration rate (GFR). DN is the most common cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), and has a consistently high mortality rate. Despite the fact that the prevalence of DN is increasing worldwide, the molecular mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of DN is not fully understood. Previous studies indicated PVT1 as a key determinant of ESRD as well as a mediator of extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation in vitro. More investigations into the role of PVT1 in DN development are needed. Objectives: To study the effect of PVT1 silencing on progression of DN in diabetic male C57BL/6 mice at early, intermediate and relatively advanced ages. Methods: Diabetic mice were treated with either scramble-siRNA (DM + siRNA (scramble)) or PVT1-siRNA (DM + siRNA (PVT1)), whereas the control mice were normal mice without siRNA injection (Control). Blood, urine and kidney were collected at the age of 9 (young), 16 (middle-aged) or 24 (old) weeks old. Kidney function, histology and molecular gene expression were evaluated. Results: Our findings showed that silencing of PVT1 reduced kidney hypertrophy, proteinuria (UAE, UACR, UPE, UPCR), serum creatinine, serum TGF-β1, serum insulin decline, glomerular and mesangial areas, and increased creatinine clearance in diabetic mice to levels closer to the age-matched controls. Also, silencing of PVT1 markedly suppressed the upregulation of PAI-1, TGF-β1, FN1, COL4A1, and downregulation of BMP7. Conclusion: Silencing of PVT1 ameliorates DN in terms of kidney function and histology in diabetic mice. The renoprotection is attributed to the reduction in ECM accumulation, TGF-β1 elevation and insulin decline. PVT1 is suggested to play an important role in ECM accumulation which makes it a possible target for the treatment of DN. Full article
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20 pages, 4278 KiB  
Article
High Oxytocin Receptor Expression Linked to Increased Cell Migration and Reduced Survival in Patients with Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
by Huiping Liu and Markus Muttenthaler
Biomedicines 2022, 10(7), 1595; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10071595 - 05 Jul 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2179
Abstract
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive breast cancer subtype with limited treatment options and high mortality. The oxytocin receptor (OTR) is a class-A G protein-coupled receptor that has been linked to breast cancer, but its role in tumorigenesis and disease progression remains [...] Read more.
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive breast cancer subtype with limited treatment options and high mortality. The oxytocin receptor (OTR) is a class-A G protein-coupled receptor that has been linked to breast cancer, but its role in tumorigenesis and disease progression remains underexplored. OTR expression is highest in tumour-adjacent breast tissue, followed by normal and tumour tissue, indicating a potential role in the tumour microenvironment. OTR levels were higher in migrated MDA-MB-231 cells than in the control parental cells cultured in normal medium; OTR overexpression/knock-down and metastasis biomarker experiments revealed that high OTR expression enhanced metastasis capabilities. These findings align well with data from a murine breast cancer metastasis model, where metastasised tumours had higher OTR expression than the corresponding primary tumours, and high OTR expression also correlates to reduced survival in TNBC patients. OTR agonists/antagonists did not affect MDA-MB-231 cell migration, and pharmacological analysis revealed that the OT/OTR signalling was compromised. High OTR expression enhanced cell migration in an OTR ligand-independent manner, with the underlying mechanism linked to the EGF-mediated ERK1/2-RSK-rpS6 pathway. Taken together, high OTR expression seems to be involved in TNBC metastasis via increasing cell sensitivity to EGF. These results support a potential prognostic biomarker role of OTR and provide new mechanistic insights and opportunities for targeted treatment options for TNBC. Full article
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