Biological Aspects of Targeted Drug Discovery: Development of Novel Targets and/or Chemotherapies, and Drug Repurposing

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Background

Cancer drug discovery is one of the most active research fields in oncological studies, where biology and chemistry come together with the aim being to find suitable new drug-like molecules which prove to be efficacious in cancer cells. Thousands of such molecules are reportedly identified annually, yet only a few reach preclinical analysis, indicating high failure rates due to issues which can include but are not limited to efficacy, physiological impacts, potentially unpleasant or intolerable side effects, and toxicity. Targeted drug discovery leads to development of refined molecules with therapeutic potential; however the success rate is again very limited. Research into drugs which have already been approved for certain conditions can sometimes lead to unexpected benefits from their unintended side effects. Available already are the safety, pharmacokinetic, and manufacturing data of licensed drug molecules, which enables researchers to concentrate and study the ‘unintended’ beneficial effects solely, skipping a long process of preclinical and clinical trials in the process. Such approaches in drug research and design are referred to as ‘drug repurposing’ or ‘drug repositioning’.

The biggest limitation in the development of novel anticancer chemotherapies is the extremely limited success rate in the development of such new molecules, despite rigorous efforts by academic research and industrial research alike. The present Research Topic is aimed to explore novel biological strategies used in research related to development of anticancer molecules from those already available to patients. Drug repurposing offers exciting opportunities for researchers as the relevant safety data is already available and requires no time or funding to be spent on uncovering these properties. Moreover, after years of use of already approved drugs, most of the unreported side effects have already come to light. Recently, researchers have started concentrating on drug repurposing in the field of cancer biology. The goal of the research topic is to highlight the recent updates in anticancer drug discovery and to highlight newly repurposed drugs.

The focus of the proposed research topic is to highlight the;
(i) novel biological approaches in drug discovery involving new/existing compounds
(ii) role of drug repurposing in anticancer drug discovery, and potential therapeutic options discovered this way
(iii) identification of new novel drug molecules with efficacy in cancer cells

Important Note: Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in any of the sections of Frontiers in Oncology.

Keywords: drugs, chemotherapy, repurposing, repositioning, clinical, pre-clinical, pharmacology, oncology, drug discovery

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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