To obtain higher potency and specificity, a series of 7-alkoxy analogues of illudalic acid was synthesized on the base of structure-activity relationship (SAR). All of these compounds exhibited submicromolar inhibition of the enzyme when tested against human leukocyte common antigen-related phosphatase (LAR) (for example, for 15e, IC50 = 180 nmol x L(-1)). They represent the most potent small-molecule inhibitors of LAR so far. These analogues also display excellent selectivity for LAR over other protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) except for the highly homologous PTPsigma. The compound 15f is of 120-fold selectivity for LAR versus PTP-1B inhibition. The development of potent enzyme-specific inhibitors is so important that they may serve both as tools to study the role of LAR and as therapeutic agents for treatment of type II diabetes.

As an extension of the structure-based drug discovery, fragment-based drug discovery is matured increasingly, and plays an important role in drug development. Fragments in a small library, with lower molecular mass and high "ligand efficiency", are detected by SPR, MS, NMR, X-ray crystallography technologies and other biophysical methods. Then they are considered as starting points for chemical optimization with the guidance of structural biology methods to get good "drug-like" lead and candidate compounds. In this article, we reviewed the current progress of fragment-based drug discovery and detailed a number of examples to illustrate the novel strategies.

Mitochondrial shape rapidly changes by dynamic balance of fusion and fission to adjust to constantly changing energy demands of cancer cells. Mitochondrial dynamics balance is exactly regulated by molecular motor consisted of myosin and actin cytoskeleton proteins. Thus, targeting myosin-actin molecular motor is considered as a promising strategy for anti-cancer. In this study, we performed a proof-of-concept study with a natural-derived small-molecule J13 to test the feasibility of anti-cancer therapeutics

Genomic alterations are commonly found in the signaling pathways of fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs). Although there is no selective FGFR inhibitors in market, several promising inhibitors have been investigated in clinical trials, and showed encouraging efficacies in patients. By designing a hybrid between the FGFR-selectivity-enhancing motif dimethoxybenzene group and our previously identified novel scaffold, we discovered a new series of potent FGFR inhibitors, with the best one showing sub-nanomolar enzymatic activity. After several round of optimization and with the solved crystal structure, detailed structure-activity relationship was elaborated. Together with metabolic stability tests and pharmacokinetic profiling, a representative compound () was selected and tested in xenograft mouse model, and the result demonstrated that inhibitor was effective against tumors with FGFR genetic alterations, exhibiting potential for further development.