What's in a Name? Drug Nomenclature and Medicinal Chemistry Trends using INN Publications

Revolutionizing fixed-dose combinations with long-acting microsphere

Combination therapy, involving the concurrent use of multiple medications, has become crucial for managing complex diseases with diverse pathological mechanisms. Fixed-Dose Combinations (FDCs) are formulated to leverage the synergistic effects of multiple drugs, thereby enhancing therapeutic outcomes. However, conventional FDCs typically maintain therapeutic effects for only up to 24 h and require frequent dosing, which often results in patient non-compliance and inconsistent treatment responses, especially in chronic diseases. This highlights the urgent need for long-acting FDCs that can provide sustained drug release over extended periods-weeks, months, or even years-thereby reducing dosing frequency and enhancing patient adherence. Microspheres, with their ability to encapsulate and release multiple medications in predefined patterns, are highly advantageous for developing long-acting FDC drugs. This review emphasizes the increasing demand for long-acting FDC drugs that ensure sustained drug release, reduce dosing frequency, and ultimately improve patient adherence. We also highlight the potential of microsphere technology, which enables precise encapsulation and sustained release of multiple medications, as a promising approach for revolutionizing long-acting FDCs with enhanced therapeutic outcomes.

ShennongAlpha: an AI-driven sharing and collaboration platform for intelligent curation, acquisition, and translation of natural medicinal material knowledge

Natural Medicinal Materials (NMMs) have a long history of global clinical applications and a wealth of records and knowledge. Although NMMs are a major source for drug discovery and clinical application, the utilization and sharing of NMM knowledge face crucial challenges, including the standardized description of critical information, efficient curation and acquisition, and language barriers. To address these, we developed ShennongAlpha, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven sharing and collaboration platform for intelligent knowledge curation, acquisition, and translation. For standardized knowledge curation, the platform introduced a Systematic Nomenclature to enable accurate differentiation and identification of NMMs. More than fourteen thousand Chinese NMMs have been curated into the platform along with their knowledge. Furthermore, the platform pioneered chat-based knowledge acquisition, standardized machine translation, and collaborative knowledge updating. Together, our study represents the first major advance in leveraging AI to empower NMM knowledge sharing, which not only marks a novel application of AI for science, but also will significantly benefit the global biomedical, pharmaceutical, physician, and patient communities.

Opportunities and Challenges of Arginase Inhibitors in Cancer: A Medicinal Chemistry Perspective

The overexpression of two arginase (ARG) isoforms, ARG1 and ARG2, contributes to the onset of numerous disorders, including cardiovascular and immune-mediated diseases, as well as tumors. To elucidate the specific roles of ARG1 and ARG2 without interfering with their physiological functions, it is crucial to develop effective ARG inhibitors that target only one isoform, while maintaining low toxicity and an adequate pharmacokinetic profile. In this context, we present a comprehensive overview of the different generations of ARG inhibitors. Given the general lack of selectivity in most existing inhibitors, we analyzed the structural features and plasticity of the ARG1 and ARG2 binding sites to explore the potential for designing inhibitors with novel binding patterns. We also review ongoing preclinical and clinical studies on selected inhibitors, highlighting both progress and challenges in developing potent, selective ARG inhibitors. Furthermore, we discuss medicinal chemistry strategies that may accelerate the discovery of selective ARG inhibitors.

Assessment of the magnitude and contributing factors of expired medicines in the public pharmaceutical supply chains of Western Ethiopia

BACKGROUND

The magnitude of expired medicines in supply chains are increasing globally due to lack of strict control of the supply chain, poor storage management and oversupply of medicines. This situation is very serious in resource-poor countries, including Ethiopia, where the supply of medicines is limited. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the magnitude and the contributing factors of expired medicines in the Public Pharmaceutical Supply Chains of Western Ethiopia.

METHODS

Explanatory sequential study design involving mixed quantitative and qualitative approach were employed among 62 public pharmaceutical supply chains of Western Ethiopia from July1 to August 30, 2021. An observational checklist and the self-administered questionnaire were used to review all records of the expired medicine file and to abstract secondary data on the extent, types of expired medicines and its contributing factors. The collected data was cleared, filtered, and coded using Microsoft Excel® 2010, and exported to SPSS version-23 (Amsterdam, Netherland) for statistical analysis. Bivariate logistic regression was used to check association between the outcome and independent variables. Multivariate logistic regression was analyzed when p-value is less than or equal to 0.25 in bivariate binary logistic regression, considering the statistical at p-value < 0.05. Moreover, audio recordings were transcribed and coded for emergent themes using thematic analysis.

RESULTS

The study revealed 5% expire rate over past two financial (2012 up to 2013) years and the total amount of expired drugs is estimated at 20 million Ethiopian Birr (ETB). Tetanus antitoxin (TAT), in terms of single drug value, had the highest drug expiry (4,110,426.43ETB: 20%), followed by liquid dosage forms (11,614,266.11 ETB: 57%). The Binary logistic regression result indicated that, poor store management were more likely associated with the magnitude of expired medicine than those with good store management (COR: 10.706, 95% CI: 2.148, 53.348). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that poor store management (AOR: 9.718, 95% CI: 1.474, 64.082) was a significant contributor to the expire rate at 5% (P < 0.05). Most facilities did not have a procedure, and programme for disposing of expired medicines. According to key informants, inadequate inventory management, lack of policy and implementation of standards are the main contributing factors of the medicine's expiration.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The current study found that the overall rate of medication expiration is high, at a significant cost to the budget. Inadequate inventory management, lack of policy, and implementation of standards are the main contributing factors to the medicine's expiration, as cited by key informants. Further research is necessary to determine the quality and efficacy of these expired drugs to extend their shelf life to ensure adequate access to drugs in resource-limited settings.

Transfer freier Aminogruppen via α-Aminierung von Carbonylen

Eine Strategie zur direkten α‐Aminierung unfunktionalisierter Carbonylverbindungen wird berichtet. Unter Verwendung einer kommerziell verfügbaren Stickstoffquelle zur Übertragung der freien Aminogruppe (NH2) werden primäre α‐Aminocarbonylverbindungen unter besonders milden Bedingungen hergestellt. Die direkte Einführung einer ungeschützten, primären Aminogruppe ermöglicht in der Folge zahlreiche in situ Funktionalisierungen der erhaltenen Reaktionsprodukte, einschließlich Peptidkupplungen und Pictet–Spengler Cyclisierungen.

Free Amino Group Transfer via α-Amination of Native Carbonyls

We report herein a straightforward transfer of a free amino group (NH2 ) from a commercially available nitrogen source to unfunctionalized, native carbonyls (amides and ketones) resulting in direct α-amination. Primary α-amino carbonyls are readily produced under mild conditions, further enabling diverse in situ functionalization reactions-including peptide coupling and Pictet-Spengler cyclization-that capitalize on the presence of the unprotected primary amine.

Deuterium in drug discovery: progress, opportunities and challenges

Substitution of a hydrogen atom with its heavy isotope deuterium entails the addition of one neutron to a molecule. Despite being a subtle change, this structural modification, known as deuteration, may improve the pharmacokinetic and/or toxicity profile of drugs, potentially translating into improvements in efficacy and safety compared with the non-deuterated counterparts. Initially, efforts to exploit this potential primarily led to the development of deuterated analogues of marketed drugs through a 'deuterium switch' approach, such as deutetrabenazine, which became the first deuterated drug to receive FDA approval in 2017. In the past few years, the focus has shifted to applying deuteration in novel drug discovery, and the FDA approved the pioneering de novo deuterated drug deucravacitinib in 2022. In this Review, we highlight key milestones in the field of deuteration in drug discovery and development, emphasizing recent and instructive medicinal chemistry programmes and discussing the opportunities and hurdles for drug developers, as well as the questions that remain to be addressed.

Catalytic Enantioselective Sulfur Alkylation of Sulfenamides for the Asymmetric Synthesis of Sulfoximines

Sulfoximines are increasingly incorporated in agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, with the two enantiomers of chiral sulfoximines often having profoundly different binding interactions with biomolecules. Therefore, their application to drug discovery and development requires the challenging preparation of single enantiomers rather than racemic mixtures. Here, we report a general and fundamentally new asymmetric synthesis of sulfoximines. The first S-alkylation of sulfenamides, which are readily accessible sulfur compounds with one carbon and one nitrogen substituent, represents the key step. A broad scope for S-alkylation was achieved by rhodium-catalyzed coupling with diazo compounds under mild conditions. When a chiral rhodium catalyst was utilized with loadings as low as 0.1 mol %, the S-alkylation products were obtained in high yields and with enantiomeric ratios up to 98:2 at the newly generated chiral sulfur center. The S-alkylation products were efficiently converted to a variety of sulfoximines with complete retention of stereochemistry. The utility of this approach was further demonstrated by the asymmetric synthesis of a complex sulfoximine agrochemical.

Puckering the planar landscape of fragments: design and synthesis of a 3D cyclobutane fragment library

Fragment‐based drug discovery (FBDD) has a growing need for unique screening libraries. The cyclobutane moiety was identified as an underrepresented yet attractive three‐dimensional (3D) scaffold. Synthetic strategies were developed via a key 3‐azido‐cyclobutanone intermediate, giving potential access to a range of functional groups with accessible growth vectors. A focused set of 33 novel 3D cyclobutane fragments was synthesised, comprising three functionalities: secondary amines, amides, and sulfonamides. This library was designed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and an expanded version of the rule of three (RO3), followed by Principal Moment of Inertia (PMI) analysis to achieve both chemical diversity and high 3D character. Cis and trans ring isomers of library members were generated to maximise the shape diversity obtained, while limiting molecular complexity through avoiding enantiomers. Property analyses of the cyclobutane library indicated that it fares favourably against existing synthetic 3D fragment libraries in terms of shape and physicochemical properties.