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Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) is a major cytokine involved in the inflammatory response. Elevated TNF-α expression has been found to be associated with the development of diabetes, septic shock, tumorigenesis, cardiovascular diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. In the past decade, the success of anti-TNF-α biologics has valuated the importance of the blockade of TNF-α production in the treatment of patients with various inflammatory diseases. Oxidative stress is another important element in oxidative/inflammatory responses that directly linked to oxidation of proteins, DNA and lipids. The increased oxidant levels could activate nuclear factor-kappaB (NFκ-B), signal transduction and gene expression of TNF-α, interleukin-1 (IL-1) and other pro-inflammatory cytokines. Therefore, TNF-α inhibitors with anti-oxidative stress activity may have multiple target effect that could exhibit excellent anti-inflammatory activities. The review briefly highlights the pathological roles of TNF-α and oxidative stress in inflammation, and covers those natural products as TNF-α inhibitors capable of anti-oxidative stress activity.

In order to develop a new series of dual inhibitors of SRC and ABL, and to investigate whether the pyrimidin- 4-ylamino moiety is critical for dasatinib's activity, acetyl substitution was adopted as alternate scaffold at the 2-amino group. Eighteen novel dasatinib derivatives were developed by a parallel synthesis approach and evaluated for their antiproliferative effects. Preliminary tests showed that some of the target compounds IId, IIe and IIf manifested strong antiproliferative activity against MCF-7, MDA-MB 231 and HT-29 cells. Easpecially IId proved to be the most potent compound. Structure-activity relationship studies indicate that the introduction of acetyl substitution as alternate scaffold of pyrimidin-4-ylamino reduced the activity.

Studies have shown that natural product scopoletin has significant pharmacological activities, such as anti-arthritic, spasmolytic, antitumoral, antidepressant-like, antifungal, antihyperglycemic and antioxidative. In search of new antitumor agents, twelve scopoletin derivatives were design

Twenty-four 2-azetidinone derivatives have been designed and synthesized as cholesterol absorption inhibitors. All new compounds were evaluated for their activity to inhibit cholesterol absorption in hamsters, and most of them showed considerable effects in lowering the levels of total cholesterol in the serum, especially compound 2d, 4a, 4f, 4i and 4j.

Glucagon-like peptide -1 (GLP-1) is an incretin hormone displaying glucose-dependent stimulation of insulin secretion and trophic effects on the pancreatic β-cells. However, GLP-1 is rapidly degraded to GLP-1(9-36) by dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-IV), which removes the N-terminal dipeptide His(7)-Ala(8). The rapid inactivation of GLP-1 in the blood circulation limits its clinical application. Hence, we replaced the enzymatic hydrolyzation position Ala(8) with other natural amino acids. The GLP-1 analogues were synthesized rapidly and efficiently under microwave irradiation, using Fmoc/tBu orthogonal protection strategy. Studies on blood-glucose-lowering effect of GLP-1 analogues in vivo were undertaken using 10-week-old male Kunming mice. The metabolic stability was tested by incubation with dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-IV). Generally, Xaa(8)-GLP-1 analogues exhibit resistance to DPP-IV degradation in vitro and stronger hypoglycemic effect than GLP-1. This may help to understand the structure-activity relationship of GLP-1 analogues.

A series of capsaicin derivatives were designed and synthesized, including 10 compounds which are the combination of capsaicin and dihydro capsaicin with ibuprofen through bridge chain. Preliminary biological tests suggested that some compounds had both anti-inflammatory activity and analgesic activity. And their pungency was lower. Based on these results, some of these molecules can be considered as lead candidates for the further development of analgesic drugs.