title: From nature to drug discovery: the indole scaffold as a 'privileged structure'.
abstract: The indole scaffold probably represents one of the most important structural subunits for the discovery of new drug candidates. The demonstration that many alkaloids contain the indole nucleus, the recognition of the importance of essential amino acid tryptophan in human nutrition and the discovery of plant hormones served to bring about a massive search on indole chemistry, giving rise to a vast number of biologically active natural and synthetic products, with a wide range of therapeutic targets, such as anti-inflammatories, phosphodiesterase inhibitors, 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor agonists and antagonists, cannabinoid receptors agonists and HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors. Many of these target-receptors belong to the class of GPCRs (integral membrane G-protein coupled receptors) and possess a conserved binding pocket that is recognized by the indole scaffold in a "common" complementary binding domain, explaining the great number of drugs that contain the indole substructure, such as indomethacin, ergotamine, frovatriptan, ondansetron, tadalafil, among many others.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Avaliação e Síntese de Substâncias Bioativas (LASSBio), Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, P.O.Box 68023, 21944-971, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernando Rodrigues
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: de Sá Alves
authors.forename: Eliezer J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Barreiro
authors.forename: Carlos Alberto Manssour
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Fraga
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001688:Biological Products / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D063386:Cannabinoid Receptor Agonists; D063387:Cannabinoid Receptor Antagonists; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods*; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D007211:Indoles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011985:Receptors, Serotonin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products; D063386:Cannabinoid Receptor Agonists; D063387:Cannabinoid Receptor Antagonists; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D007211:Indoles; D011985:Receptors, Serotonin; C030374:indole