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Novel Anticancer Leads and Probes

Guest Editors:
Rahman Shah Zaib Saleem: Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan
Nisar Ullah: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia


BMC Chemistry has published this Collection focused on Novel Anticancer Leads and Probes. Despite over a century of research cancer remains one of the leading causes of global mortality with current treatment options limited both in their efficacy and specificity. Better therapeutics may be found through innovative research on the synthesis, structure-activity relationships and molecular mechanisms of action of novel antitumor drugs.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Rahman Shah Zaib Saleem: Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan

Dr. Rahman Shah Zaib Saleem is a tenured associate professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, SBA School of Sciences and Engineering, Lahore University of Management Sciences.  His area of research interest lies in developing next generation chemotherapeutics. His specialties include hit and lead generation, lead optimization and structure-based drug design. He has been working on the modulation of microtubules, centrosomes, FLT3, and Aurora Kinases. 


Nisar Ullah: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia
Nisar Ullah is a Professor in the Chemistry Department at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. His research interests are broadly in the area of synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry. He is the recipient of Diligence, Dedication and Performance award by Pfizer Ann Arbor in 2005 and Excellence in Research Award by KFUPM in 2019.

About the collection

Despite over a century of research cancer remains one of the leading causes of mortality globally with its burden of disease projected to increase over the next two decades. Current cancer therapeutics suffer from a narrow therapeutic index, limited specificity and the risk of multidrug resistance. We remain a long way away from finding that ‘magic bullet’ to treat cancer.

To help move us further towards that treatment, BMC Chemistry launched this collection on Novel Anticancer Leads and Probes. It aims to showcase research on synthesis, computational studies, structure-activity relationships and molecular mechanism of action of novel antitumor drugs. 

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

  •  
    • Antitumor drugs targeting tubulin and microtubules
    • PARP inhibitors
    • Drugs targeting p53
    • Inhibitors of cancer-relevant kinases (e.g. Aurora kinases, FLT3, ChK1 and ChK2)
    • Drugs acting on apoptotic signalling pathways
    • HSP-90 inhibitors
    • Dual-acting anticancer drugs
    • Development of highly selective probes for proteins relevant to cancer
    • Anticancer drugs acting via reactive oxygen species
    • Anticancer drugs acting via the immune system
    • Natural anticancer compounds
    • Prodrug-based anticancer agents
    • Precision medicine


Image Credit
© molekuul.be / stock.adobe.com

  1. Modification of marketed drugs is an important way to develop drugs because its safety and clinical applicability. Oxygen-nitrogen heterocycles are a class of important active substances discovered in the proc...

    Authors: Xixi Hou, Longfei Mao, Yajie Guo, Lan Wang, Lizeng Peng, Huili Wang, Jianxue Yang, Sanqiang Li and Yue-Ming Li
    Citation: BMC Chemistry 2024 18:97
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Magnetic nanoparticles can be considered a reliable tool for targeted drug delivery to cancer tissues. Based on this, in this study, the anticancer effect of iron oxide nanoparticles coated with glucose and co...

    Authors: Somayeh Mikaeili Ghezeljeh, Ali Salehzadeh and Somayeh Ataei-e Jaliseh
    Citation: BMC Chemistry 2024 18:33
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. The design and synthesis of novel cytotoxic agents is still an interesting topic for medicinal chemistry researchers due to the unwanted side effects of anticancer drugs. In this study, a novel series of uraci...

    Authors: Leila Emami, Fateme Zare, Soghra Khabnadideh, Zahra Rezaei, Zahra Sabahi, Saman Zare Gheshlaghi, Marzieh Behrouz, Mina Emami, Zahra Ghobadi, Sedighe Madadelahi Ardekani, Fatemeh Barzegar, Ali Ebrahimi and Razieh Sabet
    Citation: BMC Chemistry 2024 18:3
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. Selenocompounds protect against damage to healthy cells and induce the death of tumor cells by apoptosis; for this reason, they are attractive compounds for cancer research. In the present study, two series of...

    Authors: Wenxin Xu, Yali Du, Beibin Pan, Qiying Wang, Haoran Zheng, Ruonan Zhang, Jiaxin Lou, Guanghui Zhu, Jie Zhou and Jian Sun
    Citation: BMC Chemistry 2023 17:172
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) mutation mechanisms are among the most common genetic abnormalities detected in about 30% of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. These mutations are accompanied by poor cli...

    Authors: Hend A. A. Ezelarab, Taha F. S. Ali, Samar H. Abbas, Heba A. Hassan and Eman A. M. Beshr
    Citation: BMC Chemistry 2023 17:73
    Content type: Review Published on:

  7. The carbazole skeleton is an important structural motif occurring naturally or synthesized chemically and has antihistaminic, antioxidant, antitumor, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory activities.

    Authors: İrfan Çapan, Mohammed Hawash, Nidal Jaradat, Yusuf Sert, Refik Servi and İrfan Koca
    Citation: BMC Chemistry 2023 17:60
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. 3-Bromoacetyl-4-(2-naphthoyl)-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazole (6) was synthesized from 2-acetylnaphthalene and was used as a new key building block for constructing the title targets. Thus, the reaction of 6 with the thi...

    Authors: Mostafa E. Salem, Esraa M. Mahrous, Eman A. Ragab, Mohamed S. Nafie and Kamal M. Dawood
    Citation: BMC Chemistry 2023 17:51
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of Research Articles. Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have read our submission guidelines. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Novel Anticancer Leads and Probes" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Guest Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.