Recent Advances in the Prediction of Pharmacokinetics Properties in Drug Design Studies: A Review

This review presents the main aspects related to pharmacokinetic properties, which are essential for the efficacy and safety of drugs. This topic is very important because the analysis of pharmacokinetic aspects in the initial design stages of drug candidates can increase the chances of success for the entire process. In this scenario, experimental and in silico techniques have been widely used. Due to the difficulties encountered with the use of some experimental tests to determine pharmacokinetic properties, several in silico tools have been developed and have shown promising results. Therefore, in this review, we address the main free tools/servers that have been used in this area, as well as some cases of application. Finally, we present some studies that employ a multidisciplinary approach with synergy between in silico, in vitro, and in vivo techniques to assess ADME properties of bioactive substances, achieving successful results in drug discovery and design.

Cytotoxic Activity of Distinct Families of Phosphonic Acid Derivatives - A Chemocentric Approach to Assess Their Molecular Action

Phosphorus containing small molecules (particularly α-aminophosphonates, α-hydroxyphosphonates and bisphosphonates) represent a unique chemical space among the biologically active compounds. We selected 35 diverse compounds that showed remarkable cytotoxicity effects on various cancer cell lines. However, the exact mechanism of action often requires further investigations, in vitro or in silico target identification even though many target-based activity data were gathered for the above cluster of compounds. In our conceptual account, we offer a systematic in silico analysis between the cytotoxicity, cell lines, their (over)expressed protein targets associated with malignant diseases, and the activity data on protein targets already reported for those compounds in the hope that we gain better understanding and explanation, what is behind their cytotoxic behavior.

Rational Design, Synthesis, in Vitro, and in Silico Studies of Chlorophenylquinazolin-4(3H)-One Containing Different Aryl Acetohydrazides as Tyrosinase Inhibitors

Tyrosinase plays a pivotal role in the hyperpigmentation and enzymatic browning of fruit and vegetable. Therefore, tyrosinase inhibitors can be of interest in industries as depigmentation compounds as well as anti-browning agents. In the present study, a series of chlorophenylquinazolin-4(3H)-one derivative were rationally designed and synthesized. The formation of target compounds was confirmed by spectral characterization techniques such as IR, ¹ H-NMR, ¹³ C-NMR, and elemental analysis. Among the synthesized derivatives, compound 8l was proved to be the most potent inhibitor with an IC₅₀ value of 25.48±1.19 μM. Furthermore, the results of the molecular docking study showed that this compound fitted well in the active site of tyrosinase with the binding score of -10.72.