Multi-targeted anticancer drugs: Design strategies and recent development

Abstract

Mono-targeted drug medications are less effective in complex multifactorial disorders involving several biochemical
pathways and various types of mutation, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative
syndromes, due to treatment resistance and side effects. Multiple targets drug simultaneously acting on a variety
of targets may have several advantages, including enhanced therapeutic effects, less risk of drug interactions
complications, improved patient compliance, and more predictable pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
The multi-targeted anticancer agents such as Sunitinib, Sorafenib, Vandetanib, Pazopanib, Axitinib, Rituximab,
Trastuzumab, Raltitrexed, Methotrexate, and Pemetrexed, are in clinically used and huge number are under different
stages of clinical trials. The muti-targeted drug design strategies can be divided into three various steps: First is
the selection of a target combination; the second is identifying the pharmacophore against individual targets; the
last step is combining the identified pharmacophore for the development of the multi-targeted drug. The aim of the
present review is to elucidate the recent advances in multi-targeted anticancer drugs.