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Updated: Jun 23, 2025

Author Spotlight: Tracing the Ferroptotic Signatures and Cell Death Dynamics in Medulloblastoma for Advanced Therapeutics
Published on: March 15, 2024
FerroLigandDB: A Ferroptosis Ligand Database of Structure-Activity Relations
Yating Lin1, Jun Xu1, Qiong Gu1
1Research Center for Drug Discovery, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, People's Republic of China.
Ferroptosis, a cell death pathway implicated in diseases, requires new regulators. FerroLigandDB is a new database detailing small-molecule ferroptosis inducers and inhibitors, aiding drug discovery.
Area of Science:
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Pharmacology and Drug Discovery
- Cheminformatics
Background:
- Ferroptosis is a vital iron-dependent programmed cell death pathway.
- Dysregulation of ferroptosis is implicated in numerous diseases, including cancer and neurodegeneration.
- There is a critical need for novel chemical compounds to modulate ferroptosis pathways.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop FerroLigandDB, a manually curated database of small-molecule ferroptosis regulators.
- To provide a comprehensive resource for discovering and designing new ferroptosis-targeting drugs.
- To facilitate research into the complex relationships between chemical structures, bioactivities, targets, and diseases.
Main Methods:
- Manual curation of ferroptosis inducer and inhibitor data.
- Compilation of detailed information including compound IDs, structures, bioactivities, targets, and associated diseases.
- Integration with external chemoinformatics databases (e.g., PubChem, SciFinder).
Main Results:
- FerroLigandDB contains 466 ferroptosis inducer entries (380 unique structures) and 539 inhibitor entries (468 unique structures).
- The database implicitly maps relationships between chemical properties, biological activity, and disease relevance.
- A user-friendly interface with query and visualization tools is provided.
Conclusions:
- FerroLigandDB serves as a valuable, comprehensive resource for researchers in ferroptosis and drug discovery.
- The database enables efficient exploration and design of novel ferroptosis regulators.
- FerroLigandDB is freely accessible online to the scientific community.
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