‘Acridine’ along with its functional analogue ‘Acridone’ is the most privileged pharmacophore in medicinal chemistry with diverse applications ranging from DNA intercalators, endonuclease mimics, ratiometric selective ion sensors, and P-glycoprotein inhibitors in countering the multi-drug resistance, enzyme inhibitors, and reversals of neurodegenerative disorders.

Anthranilic acid and its analogues present a privileged profile as pharmacophores for the rational development of pharmaceuticals deliberated for managing the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of various diseases. The substitution on anthranilic acid scaffold provides large compound libraries, which enable a comprehensive assessment of the structure activity relationship (SAR) analysis for the identification of hits and leads in a typical drug development paradigm. Besides, their widespread applications as anti‐inflammatory fenamates, the amide and anilide derivatives of anthranilic acid analogues play a central role in the management of several metabolic disorders. In addition, these derivatives of anthranilic acid exhibit interesting antimicrobial, antiviral and insecticidal properties, whereas the derivatives based on anthranilic diamide scaffold present applications as P‐glycoprotein inhibitors for managing the drug resistance in cancer cells. In addition, the anthranilic acid derivatives serve as the inducers of apoptosis, inhibitors of hedgehog signaling pathway, inhibitors of mitogen activated protein kinase pathway, and the inhibitors of aldo‐keto reductase enzymes. The antiviral derivatives of anthranilic acid focus on the inhibition of hepatitis C virus NS5B polymerase to manifest considerable antiviral properties. The anthranilic acid derivatives reportedly present neuroprotective applications by downregulating the key pathways responsible for the manifestation of neuropathological features and neurodegeneration. Nevertheless, the transition metal complexes of anthranilic acid derivatives offer therapeutic applications in diabetes mellitus, and obesity by regulating the activity of α‐glucosidase. The present review demonstrates a critical analysis of the therapeutic profile of the key derivatives of anthranilic acid and its analogues for the rational development of pharmaceuticals and therapeutic molecules.

From nanopharmaceutics to renewable energy, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) present innumerable applications in the contemporary era. However, the associated toxicity to the biosystems limits their application. Effective utilization of AgNPs, therefore, requires their surface conjugation with biologically benevolent moieties that enhance the bio-acceptability of silver-based nanosystems, and supplementary functionalities for further extension of their unique applications. The clinical importance of AgNPs was established long ago, but their clinical utilization has been explored only recently with the phenomenon of bio-conjugation. The biomolecule-conjugated AgNPs present operable solutions for tedious clinical complications of the present era, such as multidrug resistance, designing of pharmaceuticals with improved bioavailability, superior drug delivery vehicles and in situ bio imaging of important metabolites that utilize the biomolecule-anchored surface engineered AgNPs. This review epigrammatically discusses some interesting clinical applications of surface conjugated AgNPs with biomolecules such as peptides, nucleic acids, amino acids and antibodies in the current nanopharmaceutical paradigm.

Despite vigorous efforts, the COVID‐19 pandemic continues to take a toll on the global health. The contemporary therapeutic regime focused on the viral spike proteins, viral 3CL protease enzyme, immunomodulation, inhibition of viral replication, and providing a symptomatic relief encouraged the repurposing of drugs to meet the urgency of treatment. Similarly, the representative drugs that proved beneficial to alleviate SARS‐CoV‐1, MERS‐CoV, HIV, ZIKV, H1N1, and malarial infection in the past presented a sturdy candidature for ameliorating the COVID‐19 therapeutic doctrine. However, most of the deliberations for developing effective pharmaceuticals proved inconsequential, thereby encouraging the identification of new pathways, and novel pharmaceuticals for capping the COVID‐19 infection. The COVID‐19 contagion encompasses a burst release of the cytokines that increase the severity of the infection mainly due to heightened immunopathogenicity. The pro‐inflammatory metabolites, COX‐2, cPLA2, and 5‐LOX enzymes involved in their generation, and the substrates that instigate the origination of the innate inflammatory response therefore play an important role in intensifying and worsening of the tissue morbidity related to the coronavirus infection. The deployment of representative drugs for inhibiting these overexpressed immunogenic pathways in the tissues invaded by coronaviruses has been a matter of debate since the inception of the pandemic. The effectiveness of NSAIDs such as Aspirin, Indomethacin, Diclofenac, and Celecoxib in COVID‐19 coagulopathy, discouraging the SARS viral replication, the inflammasome deactivation, and synergistic inhibition of H5N1 viral infection with representative antiviral drugs respectively, have provided a silver lining in adjuvant COVID‐19 therapy. Since the anti‐inflammatory NSAIDs and COXIBs mainly function by reversing the COX‐2 overexpression to modulate the overproduction of pro‐inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, these drugs present a robust treatment option for COVID‐19 infection. This commentary succinctly highlights the various claims that support the status of immunomodulatory NSAIDs, and COXIBs in the adjuvant COVID‐19 therapy.

The polysaccharide-based advanced drug delivery system owing to their biocompatibility, ability to encapsulate the drug molecules in their interspaces, and ability to achieve a controlled release of the cargo drug molecules result in improved drug pharmacokinetics. The drug-loaded polysaccharides possess ability to evade the multidrug-resistant microbial efflux pumps by aggregation effect, whereas the drug loaded polysaccharidefabricated metal nanoparticles present an exceptional candidature for effectively transporting the drug molecules across the membrane barriers while enabling the theranostic applications at the same time. The biodegradability of polysaccharide based drug delivery systems ensure a sustained release of the encapsulated drug molecules, which minimizes the side effects caused by a burst release of the cargo therapeutics. These drug delivery systems proved highly beneficial for the NSAIDs that otherwise manifest ulcerogenic effect in the gastrointestinal tract. The large surface area of polysaccharides further provide a higher drug-loading capacity, which maintains the optimal concentration of the cargo drug at the target sites. The emerging applications of biodegradable polysaccharides in the designing of multicompartmental microspheres revolutionized tissue engineering, multi drug delivery, and cell culturing technologies. The present review deals with the current-status of polysaccharides as advanced drug delivery systems.

Contemporary drug discovery approaches rely on library synthesis coupled with combinatorial methods and high-throughput screening to identify leads.

‘Indane′ and its analogues indene, 1‐indenone, and 1,3‐indandione present an attractive biological profile for the rational development of therapeutic molecules. The indane/ indene moieties contain aromatic benzene ring fused with an aliphatic cyclopentane/ cyclopentene ring, which provides a rigid bicyclic ring‐framework enriched with diverse chemical properties. The multifarious possibilities for varying the substituent pattern on these fused ring systems enable the extensive appraisal of structure‐activity relationship analysis of rationally designed therapeutic molecules deliberated at their molecular targets. Indane analogues serve as useful scaffolds for the development of efficacious pharmaceuticals and commercial drugs, including Indinavir, Sulindac, and donepezil; whereas the pharmacophores based on indane moiety such as Aminoindanes and Indanedione contribute towards the development of neuroleptics and neuroprotective molecules. Similarly, the Indane‐carboxamide derivatives present a robust candidature as CGRP receptor antagonists, while substituted Indane and its analogue Indene present a privileged profile for the development of anticancer therapeutics by targeting the multifaceted oncologic pathways. Besides, the indane natural product scaffolds serve as perspective drug candidates with marked therapeutic properties. The present review summarizes the medicinal chemistry aspects of indane nucleus and its analogues as anticancer, anti‐inflammatory, and neuroprotective agents for the coherent development of impending therapeutics.

The highly contagious coronavirus, which had already affected more than 2 million people in 210 countries, triggered a colossal economic crisis consequently resulting from measures adopted by various goverments to limit transmission. This has placed the lives of many people infected worldwide at great risk. Currently there are no established or validated treatments for COVID-19, that is approved worldwide. Nanocarriers may offer a wide range of applications that could be developed into risk-free approaches for successful therapeutic strategies that may lead to immunisation against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) which is the primary causative organism that had led to the current COVID-19 pandemic. We address existing as well as emerging therapeutic and prophylactic approaches that may enable us to effectively combat this pandemic, and also may help to identify the key areas where nano-scientists can step in.