Drug discovery inspired by bioactive small molecules from nature

Natural products (NPs) have greatly contributed to the development of novel treatments for human diseases such as cancer, metabolic disorders, and infections. Compared to synthetic chemical compounds, primary and secondary metabolites from medicinal plants, fungi, microorganisms, and our bodies are promising resources with immense chemical diversity and favorable properties for drug development. In addition to the well-validated significance of secondary metabolites, endogenous small molecules derived from central metabolism and signaling events have shown great potential as drug candidates due to their unique metabolite-protein interactions. In this short review, we highlight the values of NPs, discuss recent scientific and technological advances including metabolomics tools, chemoproteomics approaches, and artificial intelligence-based computation platforms, and explore potential strategies to overcome the current challenges in NP-driven drug discovery.

Automated summary

Natural products (NPs) have played a significant role in drug discovery and treatment due to their chemical diversity and favorable properties. Recent scientific and technological advances, such as metabolomics tools, chemoproteomics approaches, and artificial intelligence-based computation platforms, have provided new opportunities for exploring and utilizing NPs. However, there are still challenges in NP-driven drug discovery that require the development of novel strategies to overcome.