Mechanochemical reactions by milling, grinding or other types of mechanical action have emerged as a salient green approach because of its wide applications towards academic and industrial chemical communities in sustainable solvent‐free/solvent‐less processes. Liquid‐assisted grinding (LAG) as an extension of traditional solvent‐free mechanochemical techniques by which a small amount of liquid is used as an additive to enhance and/or control reactivity, has been fruitfully applied in the screening of inclusion compounds, cocrystals, salts, solvates, and polymorphs. However, utilization of this important technique in the synthesis of pharmaceutically and biologically relevant targets was not adequately investigated. This review article summarizes an overview of the latest development of LAG mechanochemical approaches in the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and drug‐like fragments, highlights its superiority versus conventional syntheses.

Solvent-free reaction using a high-speed ball milling technique has been first applied to cross-dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) reactions between tetrahydroisoquinolines and three types of pronucleophiles such as nitroalkanes, alkynes, and indoles. All coupling products were obtained in good yields at short reaction times (no more than 40 min). When alkynes and indoles were used as pronucleophile, the reactions can be catalyzed efficiently by recoverable copper balls without any additional metal catalyst.

The effect of liquid-assisted grinding has been studied using mechanical Suzuki-Miyaura reaction of aryl chlorides as the model reaction. Catalytic systems of Davephos and PCy are tested respectively showing strong influences from different liquids. Unexpected improvement of yield over 55% is observed using alcohols as additives, which is explained by in situ formed alkoxides and their participation in oxidative addition. Further expansion of substrates using Pd(OAc)/PCy/MeOH system gives desired products in good to high yields.

Kidney-type glutaminase [KGA/isoenzyme glutaminase C (GAC)] is becoming an important tumor metabolism target in cancer chemotherapy. Its allosteric inhibitor, CB839, showed early promise in cancer therapeutics but limited efficacy in in vivo cancer models. To improve the in vivo activity, we explored a bioisostere replacement of the sulfur atom in bis-2-(5-phenylacetamido-1,2,4-thiadiazol)­ethyl sulfide and CB839 analogues with selenium using a novel synthesis of the selenadiazole moiety from carboxylic acids or nitriles. The resulting selenadiazole compounds showed enhanced KGA inhibition, more potent induction of reactive oxygen species, improved inhibition of cancer cells, and higher cellular and tumor accumulation than the corresponding sulfur-containing molecules. However, both CB839 and its selenium analogues show incomplete inhibition of the tested cancer cells, and a partial reduction in tumor size was observed in both the glutamine-dependent HCT116 and aggressive H22 liver cancer xenograft models. Despite this, tumor tissue damage and prolonged survival were observed in animals treated with the selenium analogue of CB839.

An amorphous solid dispersion (SD) of curcumin (Cur) with disodium glycyrrhizin (Na2GA) was prepared by mechanical ball milling. Curcumin loaded micelles were self-formed by Na2GA when SD dissolved in water. The physical properties of Cur SD in solid state were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction studies, and scanning electron microscope. The characteristics of the sample solutions were analyzed by reverse phase HPLC, UV–visible spectroscopy, 1H NMR spectroscopy, gel permeation LC, and transmission electron microscopy. In vitro cytotoxic tests demonstrated that Cur SD induced higher cytotoxicity against glioblastoma U-87 MG cells than free Cur. Besides, an improvement of membrane permeability of Cur SD was confirmed by parallel artificial membrane permeability assay. Further pharmacokinetic study of this SD formulation in rat showed a significant ∼19-fold increase of bioavailability as comparing to free Cur. Thus, Cur SD provide a more potent and efficacious formulation for Cur oral delivery.