Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 22, Issue 17, 2022

Neurological disorders generally have the characteristics of occult onset and progressive development, which can do some serious damage to the human body in the aging process. It is worth noting that traditional medicine can potentially prevent and treat such diseases. Ziziphi Spinosae Semen (ZSS), the seeds of Ziziphus jujuba var. spinosa, has a long clinical history for sleep regulation. In recent years, ZSS has been proved to exhibit various types of neuroprotective activity, such as sleep improvement, antidepressant, anti-anxiety, memory improvement, etc. It has become a popular natural product due to its many inherently available compounds that demonstrate medicinal and pharmacological importance. This paper reviews the main components and their metabolic transformation processes, highlights the various neurofunctional regulation activities and the mechanisms of ZSS, providing a theoretical basis for further research and clinical application of this natural medicine.

Cancer is a long-term and deadly pandemic that affects nearly a third of the world's population. Chemotherapy is currently the most common therapeutic treatment, but it is difficult to achieve satisfactory efficacy due to drug resistance and adverse effects.Natural products are becoming increasingly popular in cancer therapy due to their potent broad-spectrum anticancer potency and slight side effects. Lignans are complex diphenolic compounds comprising a family of secondary metabolites existing widely in plants. Naturally occurring lignans have the potential to act on cancer cells by a range of mechanisms of action and could inhibit the colony formation, arrest the cell cycle in different phases, induce apoptosis, and suppress migration, providing privileged scaffolds for the discovery of novel anticancer agents. In recent five years, a variety of naturally occurring lignans have been isolated and screened for their in vitro and/or in vivo anticancer efficacy, and some of them exhibited promising potential. This review has systematically summarized the resources, anticancer activity, and mechanisms of action of naturally occurring lignans, covering articles published between January 2017 and January 2022.

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent malignant diseases, and one of the main causes of mortality among women across the world. Despite advances in chemotherapy, drug resistance remains a major clinical concern, creating an urgent need to explore novel anti-breast cancer drugs. 1,2,3-triazole is a privileged moiety, and its derivatives could inhibit cancer cell proliferation and induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Accordingly, 1,2,3-triazole derivatives possess profound activity against various cancers, including breast cancer. This review summarizes the latest progress related to the anti-breast cancer potential of 1,2,3-triazole derivatives, covering articles published from January 2017 to December 2021. The mechanisms of action and structure-activity relationships (SARs) are also discussed for the further rational design of more effective candidates.

Cancer being one of the leading causes of death among non-communicable diseases, has already posed a heavy burden on the world health system. Chemotherapy is one of the most effective approaches for cancer treatment, but multidrug resistance, lack of efficacy, and toxic side effects hamper efficacious cancer chemotherapy, creating an urgent need to develop novel, more effective and less toxic anticancer therapeutics. Quinoxalines, as fascinating structures, constitute an important class of heterocycles in drug discovery. Quinoxaline hybrids could exert anticancer activity through diverse mechanisms and possess profound in vitro and in vivo efficacy against various cancers, including multidrug-resistant forms. Thus, quinoxaline hybrids represent useful templates for the control and eradication of cancer. The purpose of the present review article is to provide an emphasis on the recent developments (Jan. 2017-Jan. 2022) in quinoxaline hybrids with insights into their in vitro and in vivo anticancer potential as well as structure-activity relationships (SARs) to facilitate further rational design of more effective candidates.

Cancer is claimed as a prevalent cause of mortality throughout the world. Conventional chemotherapy plays a pivotal role in the treatment of cancers, but multidrug resistance has already become one of the major impediments to efficacious cancer therapy, creating a great demand for the development of novel anticancer drugs. Steroidal saponins, abundantly found in nature, possess extensive structural variability, and some naturally occurring steroidal saponins exhibit profound anticancer properties through a variety of pathways. Hence, naturally occurring steroidal saponins are powerful lead compounds/candidates in the development of novel therapeutic agents. This review article described the recent progress of naturally occurring steroidal saponins as potential anticancer agents, and the mechanisms of action were also discussed, covering articles published between 2017 and 2021.