Isoquinolines: Important Cores in Many Marketed and Clinical Drugs

Isoquinoline analogs are an important, structurally diverse class of compounds that are extensively used as pharmaceuticals. Derivatives containing the isoquinoline scaffold have become a focus of therapeutic research because of their wide range of biological characteristics. Examples of these drugs, many of which are in clinical application or at the pre-clinical stage, are used to treat a broad swathe of ailments, such as tumors, respiratory diseases, infections, nervous system diseases, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, endocrine and metabolic diseases.Data were collected from PubMed, Web of Science, and SciFinder, through searches of drug names.At least 38 isoquinoline-based therapeutic drugs are in clinical application or clinical trials, and their chemical structure and pharmacokinetics are described in detail.The isoquinoline ring is a privileged scaffold which is often preferred as a structural basis for drug design, and plays an important role in drug discovery. This review provides a guide for pharmacologists to find effective preclinical/clinical drugs and examines recent progress in the application of the isoquinoline scaffold.