Natural products in drug discovery: advances and opportunities

  • Atanas G. Atanasov (Lead / Corresponding author)
  • , Sergey B. Zotchev
  • , Verena M. Dirsch
  • , International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce
  • , Claudiu T. Supuran (Lead / Corresponding author)

    Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Natural products and their structural analogues have historically made a major contribution to pharmacotherapy, especially for cancer and infectious diseases. Nevertheless, natural products also present challenges for drug discovery, such as technical barriers to screening, isolation, characterization and optimization, which contributed to a decline in their pursuit by the pharmaceutical industry from the 1990s onwards. In recent years, several technological and scientific developments — including improved analytical tools, genome mining and engineering strategies, and microbial culturing advances — are addressing such challenges and opening up new opportunities. Consequently, interest in natural products as drug leads is being revitalized, particularly for tackling antimicrobial resistance. Here, we summarize recent technological developments that are enabling natural product-based drug discovery, highlight selected applications and discuss key opportunities.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)200-216
    Number of pages17
    JournalNature Reviews Drug Discovery
    Volume20
    Early online date28 Jan 2021
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Mar 2021

    UN SDGs

    This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

    1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
      SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

    Keywords

    • Chemical biology
    • Transferases

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Pharmacology
    • Drug Discovery

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