Mutagenicity refers to the induction of permanent changes in the DNA sequence of an organism, which may result in a heritable change in the characteristics of living systems. Antimutagenic agents are able to counteract the effects of mutagens. This group of agents includes both natural and synthetic compounds. Based on their mechanism of action among antimutagens, several classes of compounds may be distinguished. These are compounds with antioxidant activity; compounds that inhibit the activation of mutagens; blocking agents; as well as compounds characterized with several modes of action. It was reported previously that several antitumor compounds act through the antimutagenic mechanism. Hence, searching for antimutagenic compounds represents a rapidly expanding field of cancer research. It may be observed that, in recent years, many publications were focused on the screening of both natural and synthetic compounds for their beneficial muta/antimutagenicity profile. Thus, the present review attempts to give a brief outline on substances presenting antimutagenic potency and their possible mechanism of action. Additionally, in the present paper, a screening strategy for mutagenicity testing was presented and the characteristics of the most widely used antimutagenicity assays were described.

Determination of metabolic profiles of new chemical entities is a key step in the process of drug discovery, since it influences pharmacokinetic characteristics of therapeutic compounds. One of the main challenges of medicinal chemistry is not only to design compounds demonstrating beneficial activity, but also molecules exhibiting favourable pharmacokinetic parameters. Chemical compounds can be divided into those which are metabolized relatively fast and those which undergo slow biotransformation. Rapid biotransformation reduces exposure to the maternal compound and may lead to the generation of active, non-active or toxic metabolites. In contrast, high metabolic stability may promote interactions between drugs and lead to parent compound toxicity. In the present paper, issues of compound metabolic stability will be discussed, with special emphasis on its significance, in vitro metabolic stability testing, dilemmas regarding in vitro-in vivo extrapolation of the results and some aspects relating to different preclinical species used in in vitro metabolic stability assessment of compounds.

Ion channel targeted drugs have always been related with either the central nervous system (CNS), the peripheral nervous system, or the cardiovascular system. Within the CNS, basic indications of drugs are: sleep disorders, anxiety, epilepsy, pain, etc. However, traditional channel blockers have multiple adverse events, mainly due to low specificity of mechanism of action. Lately, novel ion channel subtypes have been discovered, which gives premises to drug discovery process led towards specific channel subtypes. An example is Na+ channels, whose subtypes 1.3 and 1.7-1.9 are responsible for pain, and 1.1 and 1.2 – for epilepsy. Moreover, new drug candidates have been recognized. This review is focusing on ion channels subtypes, which play a significant role in current drug discovery and development process. The knowledge on channel subtypes has developed rapidly, giving new nomenclatures of ion channels. For example, Ca2+ channels are not any more divided to T, L, N, P/Q, and R, but they are described as Cav1.1-Cav3.3, with even newer nomenclature α1A-α1I and α1S. Moreover, new channels such as P2X1-P2X7, as well as TRPA1-TRPV1 have been discovered, giving premises for new types of analgesic drugs.

Neuropathic pain is a kind of pain related with functional abnormality of neurons. Despite large progress in pharmacotherapy, neuropathic pain is still considered an unmet need. Nowadays, there are few drugs registered for this condition, such as pregabalin, gabapentin, duloxetine, carbamazepine, and lidocaine. Among them, pregabalin, gabapentin and carbamazepine are well known antiepileptic drugs. Among the group of new antiepileptic drugs, which are addressed to 1% of human world population suffering from seizures, it turned out that 30% of the seizures resistant to pharmacotherapy has not enough market to justify the costs of drug development. Therefore, it is already a phenomenon that researchers turn their projects toward a larger market, related with possible similar mechanism. Anticonvulsant mechanism of action is in the first place among primary indications for drugs revealing potential analgesic activity. Therefore, many drug candidates for epilepsy, still in preclinical stage, are being evaluated for activity in neuropathic pain. This review is focusing on antiepileptic drugs, which are evaluated for their analgesic activity in major tests related with neuropathic pain. Relation between structure, mechanism of action and result in tests such as the Chung model (spinal nerve ligation SNL), the Bennett model (chronic constriction injury of sciatic nerve CCI) and other tests are considered. The first examples are carbamazepine, gabapentin, and lacosamide as drugs well established in epilepsy market as well as drug candidates such as valnoctamide, and other valproic acid derivatives, novel biphenyl pyrazole derivatives, etc. Moreover, clinical efficacy related with listed animal models has been discussed.