Discovery of small-molecule candidates against inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic and recurrent inflammatory disease in the gastrointestinal tract emerged as a public health challenge worldwide. IBD exhibits a relapsing and remitting course results in negative impacts on both physical and psychological health of IBD patients. Great efforts have been made during the past few years, but relatively limited drugs are currently available for the management of IBD. Clinically, there is a strong demand for new drugs for the treatment of IBD with better efficacy and lower side effects. This review focuses on the drug discovery process of the anti-IBD agents, aiming to introduce the general characteristics of IBD, as well as systematically summarize the recent advances in the discovery of small-molecule candidates and natural products with promising in vivo potential for the treatment of IBD.