Optimizing lead compounds to have drug candidate-like qualities is time-consuming and expensive. Oftentimes, critical drug discovery project questions, such as on-target pharmacology or toxicology, can be answered more efficiently with compounds that are "good enough," saving teams time and further resource investment. This article discusses [...]
Obtaining adequate drug exposure in the brain is key to treating CNS diseases effectively. Recently, Dennis Koester gave us a crash course in CNS drug discovery in a Drug Hunter Flash Talk. Here, he sums up some key points on how to find compounds that cross the blood-brain barrier.
In this minireview, Drs. Jayme L. Dahlin and Michael A. Walters summarize the different mechanisms by which molecules can be AICs (assay interference compounds), a subset of which can be flagged as PAINS (pan-assay interference compounds) by a popular set of substructure filters. They bin these into non-technology-related interference [...]
With the biochemistry magic available to the liver, it's a wonder that anything we consume is well-tolerated. Even carboxylic acids are structural alerts as they can be converted to bioreactive acyl glucoronides. The best we can do as drug hunters is minimize the risk of toxic metabolite formation and apply assays appropriately to select [...]
Small-molecule drug candidates are increasingly falling “ beyond the rule of 5 ,” making oral administration more challenging. Optimizing a drug’s solid form can improve its solubility and bioavailability when further molecular modifications are prohibitive. This minireview covers solid form strategies for increasing the solubility and oral [...]