New Therapeutic Chemical Modalities: Compositions, Modes-of-action, and Drug Discovery

Abstract

Over the last decade, the landscape of therapeutic modalities has been deeply transformed by the development of novel chemical classes challenging the supremacy of small molecules and antibodies/biologics. Many of these New Modalities have now reached clinical stage or even market and have demonstrated the opportunity to modulate therapeutic targets through additional modes-of-action and through intervention at the DNA and RNA level beyond the classical protein level. This chapter describes the different chemical classes that make New Modalities either as single entities or as homo- or hetero-fusion and -conjugation and their associated modes-of-action. The discovery of starting of points and property optimisation is then described, focusing on the most advanced modalities, leading finally to a framework for modality selection. Overall, medicinal chemists have now access to an extended set of drug modalities to modulate biology, and even rewire biological processes with approaches such as chemically induced proximity, and this chapter serves as a guide to navigate through this exciting field.