LPS-mediated cellular model

Heat-clearing and detoxification is a specific treatment method in the research of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which is clinically used to treat infectious diseases with remarkable effect. Over the past decades, the research of heat-clearing and detoxification treatment has been one of the most active fields of combining traditional Chinese and western medicines, and has made remarkable achievements. Nowadays, the application field of heat-clearing and detoxification traditional Chinese medicine is not only limited to antibacterial and antiviral, but also has made progress in the research fields of anti-inflammatory reaction, anti-endotoxin, anti-peroxidative damage, anti-inflammatory cytokines, enhancement of immune function, protection of cellular organelles, and maintenance of calcium homeostasis. In addition to this, clearing heat and removing toxins has also made significant research progress in non-infectious diseases, for example, in tumors, cardiovascular diseases, renal diseases, blood diseases, geriatrics, and diabetes, all of which have shown good curative effect.

MCE can supply 1,282 monomer component from more than a hundred sources of heat-clearing and detoxification TCM, which can be used in TCM studies, drug development and mechanism-based studies.

Ionizable lipids are a class of specialized, functional lipid molecules with pH-sensitive charge characteristics. They are primarily divided into two major categories: ionizable cationic lipids and ionizable anionic lipids, though the term typically specifies ionizable cationic lipids within the biomedical field. Structurally, these lipids consist of an ionizable hydrophilic headgroup, a biodegradable linker, and hydrophobic tails. Their primary application is serving as the key delivery vehicle in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to encapsulate negatively charged nucleic acid macromolecules, such as mRNA vaccines, siRNA therapeutics, and CRISPR gene-editing components. In a physiological, neutral environment, they remain electrically neutral to minimize systemic toxicity and prolong circulation time. Upon entering the acidic microenvironment of cellular endosomes, however, they undergo protonation to become positively charged, thereby inducing membrane fusion and enabling the highly efficient intracellular release of the nucleic acid cargo. Consequently, they serve as the technological cornerstone for bringing nucleic acid therapies into clinical application.

To accelerate the translational process of cutting-edge nucleic acid drugs, MCE has meticulously constructed an ionizable lipid compound library containing 93 high-performance molecules, aiming to provide researchers and pharmaceutical professionals with a high-throughput, multi-dimensional lipid screening platform.

Lipids are important energy storage substances in the human body. They are involved in the regulation of cell structure and function, as well as signaling pathways and gene expression. Abnormal lipid levels in tissues or their dysregulation can lead to various diseases. These include obesity, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, neurodegenerative diseases, infections, and cancer. Therefore, maintaining normal levels of lipid metabolism is critical to overall health.

One of the key features of cancer is aberrant lipid metabolism. This includes alterations in lipid uptake, lipid desaturation, neolipogenesis, lipid droplets, and fatty acid oxidation in cancer cells. These changes all contribute to cellular survival in an ever-changing microenvironment. They do this by modulating feed-forward oncogenic signals and key oncogenic functions. Additionally, they affect oxidative stress, other types of stress, immune responses, and intercellular communication. Alterations in lipid metabolism have a strong impact on the properties of cancer stem cells. This includes aspects such as self-renewal, differentiation, invasion, metastasis, drug sensitivity, and resistance. Furthermore, these alterations also modulate T cell responses.

MCE can offer 146 metabolites of lipid metabolism pathways, which can be used for drug screening in cancer, immune-based diseases, metabolic diseases, and other diseases.

With the aging population and increasing competitive pressures, neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) have become a serious medical challenge in modern society, including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, brain tumors, and multiple sclerosis. However, the success rate of CNS drug development remains remarkably low, primarily due to the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a semipermeable barrier structure that surrounds the microvasculature of the CNS. In capillaries, the wedged endothelial cells are tightly packed and wedge-shaped, lining the interior of the vessels to form extensive tight junctions. Along with a range of receptors, transporters, efflux pumps, and other cellular components, this barrier regulates the entry and exit of molecules between the bloodstream and the brain. The intact BBB blocks the passage of most blood-borne substances into the brain, preventing nearly 100% of large-molecule drugs and over 98% of small-molecule drugs from entering. Compared to non-CNS drugs, physicochemical properties such as hydrogen bonds, lipophilicity, and molecular weight significantly influence a compound's ability to cross the BBB. Using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to predict BBB permeability, a predicted value greater than 0.75 indicates that the compound has strong potential to cross the BBB, providing a promising starting point for CNS drug discovery.

In the progression of various diseases, metabolic reprogramming has emerged as a key hallmark. Lactate, as an important metabolic signaling molecule, is widely involved in tumorigenesis, immune regulation, and inflammatory responses. Particularly within the tumor microenvironment, the abnormal accumulation of lactate not only affects cellular energy metabolism but also promotes disease progression by modulating immune cell functions and mediating protein lactylation, thereby participating in epigenetic regulation and signaling networks. Therefore, systematic investigation of lactate metabolic pathways and their associated metabolites is of great significance for understanding disease mechanisms and developing novel therapeutic strategies.

The MCE lactic acid metabolite compound library contains 61 compounds and is constructed around key metabolic pathways involving lactate production, transport, and utilization. This library systematically includes core intermediates from glycolysis, the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, and the lactate cycle. Focusing on disease-associated metabolic reprogramming, it is suitable for research in oncology, inflammation, and metabolic disorders. The library can be used to elucidate the roles of lactate in tumor microenvironment regulation, immune evasion, and epigenetic modifications (such as protein lactylation). In addition, it provides high-quality small-molecule resources for drug screening, facilitating the discovery of potential modulators targeting key enzymes (such as LDH) or transporters (such as MCTs) involved in lactate metabolism.

Protein lactylation, an emerging post-translational modification identified in recent years, plays a critical role in linking cellular metabolic reprogramming, epigenetic regulation, and signaling networks. Based on a systematic framework encompassing lactate metabolism, lactylation, and downstream signaling pathways, this compound library comprehensively targets multiple regulatory layers, including histone modification enzymes (such as p300 and HDACs), key glycolytic enzymes (such as PKM2, LDHA, and GAPDH), transcriptional regulators (such as STAT3, HMGB1, and p53), as well as central signaling pathway nodes including HIF-1α, NF-κB, and PI3K-AKT-mTOR. This integrated design enables a comprehensive representation of the regulatory roles of lactylation across the “metabolism–epigenetics–signaling” axis.

MCE has assembled a collection of 6,182 known bioactive compounds and potential functional molecules, making this library suitable for a wide range of applications, including high-throughput drug screening, inhibitor identification, and mechanistic studies. It can be used to systematically evaluate the functional roles of lactylation in biological processes such as tumor metabolism, immune regulation, and inflammatory responses, and to efficiently identify small-molecule candidates with regulatory potential, thereby facilitating the development of innovative therapeutics targeting the interplay between metabolism and epigenetic regulation.

The PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway controls many cellular processes that are important for the formation and progression of cancer, including apoptosis, transcription, translation, metabolism, angiogenesis, and cell cycle progression. Every major node of this signaling network is activated in a wide range of human tumors. Mechanisms for the pathway activation include activation of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) upstream of PI3K, mutation or amplification of PIK3CA encoding p110α catalytic subunit of PI3K, mutation or loss of PTEN tumor suppressor gene, and mutation or amplification of Akt1. Once the pathway is activated, signaling through Akt can stimulate a series of substrates including mTOR which is involved in protein synthesis. Thus, inhibition of this pathway is an attractive concept for cancer prevention and/or therapy. Currently some mTOR inhibitors are approved for several indications, and there are several novel PI3K/Akt/mTOR inhibitors in clinical trials.

MCE owns a unique collection of 1,149 compounds that can be used for PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway research. PI3K/Akt/mTOR Compound Library also acts as a useful tool for anti-cancer drug discovery.

Stem cells, which are found in all multi-cellular organisms, can divide and differentiate into diverse special cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells. To be useful in therapy, stem cells must be converted into desired cell types as necessary which is called induced differentiation or directed differentiation. Understanding and using signaling pathways for differentiation is an important method in successful regenerative medicine. Small molecules or growth factors induce the conversion of stem cells into appropriate progenitor cells, which will later give rise to the desired cell type. There is a variety of signal molecules and molecular families that may affect the establishment of germ layers in vivo, such as fibroblast growth factors (FGFs); the wnt family or superfamily of transforming growth factors β (TGFβ) and bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP). Unfortunately, for now, a high cost of recombinant factors is likely to limit their use on a larger scale in medicine. The more promising technique focuses on the use of small molecules. These small molecules can be used for either activating or deactivating specific signaling pathways. They enhance reprogramming efficiency by creating cells that are compatible with the desired type of tissue. It is a cheaper and non-immunogenic method.

MCE Differentiation Inducing Compound Library contains a unique collection of 2,574 compounds that act on signaling pathways for differentiation. These compounds are potential stimulators for induced differentiation. This library is a useful tool for researching directed differentiation and regenerative medicine.

MCE 18 stands for Medicinal Chemistry Evolution 2018. This metric was established based on structural data of 28,161 patented lead molecules, 1,370 marketed innovative drugs, and nearly 30,000 investigational candidates from preclinical to Phase III stages across 23 major global pharmaceutical companies from 1950 to 2018. After scaffold clustering analysis, a scoring model was constructed by integrating five three dimensional scaffold characteristics, including aromatic rings (AR), non aromatic heterocycles (NAR), chiral centers (CHIRAL), spirocycles (SPIRO), and the sp³ carbon ratio in cyclic and acyclic moieties, enabling quantitative assessment of molecular scaffold novelty and three dimensional complexity.

According to the score distribution of patented molecules, the top 25% of the original patent dataset was defined as the high novelty region. MCE 18 high scoring compounds selected based on this criterion can effectively avoid scaffold patent conflicts and intellectual property risks from the source. Molecules in this range typically feature a high sp³ carbon ratio, abundant chiral centers, spirocycles, and fused heterocycles with prominent three dimensional conformations. Their spatial properties allow precise matching to complex non traditional undruggable target pockets such as PPI interfaces and allosteric sites, making them ideal structural types for early stage screening of First in class drugs.

MCE‑18 Novelty Focused drug‑Like library strictly selects molecules from the aforementioned high scoring range, containing more than 10,000 premium drug like molecules with highly diverse scaffolds and rich 3D diversity. It can be used for high throughput screening of well established targets such as kinases, GPCRs, and proteases, and is especially suitable for hit identification in allosteric modulation, protein–protein interactions, and various undruggable orphan targets, fully supporting early stage drug discovery for cutting edge innovat