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Updated: Jul 20, 2026
07:51
High-throughput Identification of Synergistic Drug Combinations by the Overlap2 Method
Published on: May 21, 2018
Target-oriented and diversity-oriented organic synthesis in drug discovery
1Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. sls@slsiris.harvard.edu
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|March 17, 2000
Summary
This review explores synthetic planning for drug discovery. It highlights how diversity-oriented synthesis aids in finding new drug targets by creating complex molecules to perturb biological pathways.
Area of Science:
- Medicinal Chemistry
- Synthetic Chemistry
- Drug Discovery
Background:
- Modern drug discovery frequently screens small molecules for protein targets.
- Retrosynthetic analysis is key for target-oriented synthesis of focused libraries.
- Pathway-based screening offers an alternative approach without a predefined target.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review synthetic planning principles for diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS).
- To illustrate the role of DOS in advancing drug discovery.
- To discuss how DOS can identify novel therapeutic targets.
Main Methods:
- Discussion of retrosynthetic analysis for target-oriented synthesis.
- Exploration of forward synthesis analysis for diversity-oriented synthesis.
- Principles of generating structurally complex and diverse small molecules.
Main Results:
- DOS enables efficient synthesis of diverse small molecule collections.
- These collections can perturb various disease-related biological pathways.
- DOS facilitates the identification of novel small molecule-modulated therapeutic targets.
Conclusions:
- Synthetic planning is crucial for both target-oriented and diversity-oriented drug discovery.
- Diversity-oriented synthesis offers a powerful strategy for identifying new drug targets and therapeutics.
- The evolution of synthetic pathway analysis is vital for future drug discovery endeavors.
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