On improving the activity and selectivity of small molecule drugs / 药学学报

ABSTRACT

Although small molecule drugs (SMD) are still mainstream for the treatment of diseases, large molecule biologicss of many advantages, pose a challenge to the further discovery and use of SMD. The advantages of SMD are the convenience of oral administration and good patient compliance. However, the challenge with SMD is to integrate the PD, PK, selectivity and safety into a chemical structure. Because of their small size and surface area they often bind to various proteins, and off-target actions can cause adverse reactions. In this sense, selectivity is critical. Based upon target as the core to construct a chemical structure, it is necessary to consider the requirements of all the attributes, but achievement of the full-dimensional optimization is difficult. Modern drug discovery has been greatly enhanced by molecular biology and structural biology, and new strategies and technologies have emerged, which have created many successful medicines. For example, under the guidance of structural biology, covalent binding drugs connect moderate "electrophilic warheads" to the appropriate positions of molecules, and upon binding to their targets the electrophiles are irreversibly linked to the target by covalent bonds. Molecular biology can be directly applied to the development of antibody-coupled drugs (ADC). The antibody (A) acts as a carrier and a guide (for PK), and carries toxic molecules (D) into cancer cells, thus playing a killing role (for PD). The separate pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic entities are coupled (C) by linkers. PROTACs are also bifunctional molecules, which recruit a target protein and ubiquitin ligase E3 to form a ternary complex, which then acts as a catalyst to ubiquitinate the target protein and lead to degradation by the proteasome. In addition, in recent years, the combination of two fixed-dose drugs has improved selectivity, safety, and long-term benefit with many severe diseases, and can be regarded as an innovative strategy of physical combination. This review discusses some successful examples to briefly present the principles from the perspective of medicinal chemistry and therapeutic application.