Elgendy Publishes Article in Journal of Medicinal Chemistry Perspective Series
Published on 18 December 2021
Bahaa Elgendy, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicinal chemistry at University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis, was the lead author of a recent article featured in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry’s Perspective series. The series provides a forum for recognized research experts to review and provide their input on active areas of research.
Elgendy worked to develop the article alongside Yuanying Fang, Ph.D., associate professor at the Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and former postdoctoral research associate in the Elgendy lab at the Center for Clinical Pharmacology; Lamees Hegazy, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicinal chemistry at UHSP and Brian N. Finck, Ph.D., professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The article focused on the Farnesoid X receptor (FXR), which is an important regulator of bile acid, lipid, amino acid, glucose homeostasis, hepatic inflammation, regeneration and fibrosis.
“In our Perspective piece, we summarized the research progress on the medicinal chemistry of FXR modulators from 2018 to the present day,” Elgendy explained. “FXR has been recognized as a promising drug target for various metabolic diseases such as lipid disorders, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and chronic kidney disease.”
Elgendy notes that in recent years, a large number of FXR ligands have been developed into drug candidates by various pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions, with several progressing into clinical trials. However, continuing to develop drugs targeting FXR compounds has been challenging due to side-effects associated with long-term administration.
“Through our Perspective piece, we discussed the diverse structures of synthetic FXR modulators including steroidal and non-steroidal ligands, their structure-activity relationships and their therapeutic applications,” Elgendy noted. “In this article, we were focused on providing fellow researchers with insight on where this research can go next, and where gaps may exist in this area of research that we need to address moving forward.”
This publication marks the second time Elgendy has been invited by the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry to submit a Perspective article.
“These articles serve as important resources for researchers because they offer an overview of the highest quality pieces of research in various fields and provide researchers with tools and new approaches they can utilize to tackle many research questions and problems,” Elgendy said. “The Journal of Medicinal Chemistry is the No. 1 journal in the field of medicinal chemistry, so having the chance to publish this Perspective article was an honor.”
Elgendy’s research is conducted at the Center for Clinical Pharmacology. Established in August 2015, the Center for Clinical Pharmacology is a partnership between University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis and the Department of Anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The center continues to diversify with faculty investigators currently engaged a variety of diverse research areas. Click here to learn more.
