Computer-Aided Drug Discovery Approaches in the Identification of Anticancer Drugs from Natural Products: A Review.

Natural plant sources are essential in the development of several anticancer drugs, such as vincristine, vinblastine, vinorelbine, docetaxel, paclitaxel, camptothecin, etoposide, and teniposide. However, various chemotherapies fail due to adverse reactions, drug resistance, and target specificity. Researchers are now focusing on developing drugs that use natural compounds to overcome these issues. These drugs can affect multiple targets, have reduced adverse effects, and are effective against several cancer types. Developing a new drug is a highly complex, expensive, and time-consuming process. Traditional drug discovery methods take up to 15 years for a new medicine to enter the market and cost more than one billion USD. However, recent Computer Aided Drug Discovery (CADD) advancements have changed this situation. This paper aims to comprehensively describe the different CADD approaches in identifying anticancer drugs from natural products. Data from various sources, including Science Direct, Elsevier, NCBI, and Web of Science, are used in this review. In-silico techniques and optimization algorithms can provide versatile solutions in drug discovery ventures. The structure-based drug design technique is widely used to understand chemical constituents' molecular-level interactions and identify hit leads. This review will discuss the concept of CADD, in-silico tools, virtual screening in drug discovery, and the concept of natural products as anticancer therapies. Representative examples of molecules identified will also be provided.

3-(4-Chloro-phen-yl)quinazolin-4(3H)-one.

In the title compound, C(14)H(9)ClN(2)O, the quinazoline unit is essentially planar, with a mean deviation from the least-squares plane defined by the ten constituent ring atoms of 0.027 (2) Å. The dihedral angle between the mean plane of the quinazoline ring system and the 4-chloro-phenyl ring is 44.63 (5)°. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by inter-molecular C-H⋯N and C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming infinite chains of alternating R(2) (2)(6) dimers and R(2) (2)(14) ring motifs.

3-(4-Bromo-phen-yl)quinazolin-4(3H)-one.

In the title compound, C(14)H(9)BrN(2)O, the quinazoline unit is essentially planar, with a mean deviation of 0.058 (2) Šfrom the least-squares plane defined by the ten constituent ring atoms. The dihedral angle between the mean plane of the quinazoline ring system and the 4-bromo-phenyl ring is 47.6 (1)°. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by inter-molecular C-H⋯N and C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming infinite chains of alternating R(2) (2)(6) dimers and R(2) (2)(14) ring motifs.