Editorial: Emerging heterocycles as bioactive compounds

Heterocycles represent a privileged scaffold due to their ability to interact with biological systems via heteroatoms. It is no coincidence that every year the Food and Drug Administration approves numerous new drugs that contain at least one heterocyclic system as active pharmacophoric part in their structure. Many heterocyclic compounds with therapeutic properties, including anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and so on, come from natural sources such as plants and animals, and medicinal chemists very often use them to study their chemical space and improve their biological activity. In fact, several efficient approaches for the formation of aromatic heterocyclic compounds and their derivatives have been described in the literature in the past, but the development of new green synthetic procedures and methodologies for their high-yield synthesis is increasingly in demand in drug discovery program. This Editorial collects recent research progress in the field of medicinal chemistry focused on the synthesis of new bioactive heterocycles of different types of activities, including anticancer, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory.