Indole-selenide derivatives: recent advances in design, synthesis and future prospects for therapeutic applications

In recent years, Selenium (Se) has become an emerging versatile player in medicinal chemistry. Indole scaffolds, known as a “privileged structure,” are widely used in drug design due to their unique physicochemical properties and broad biological activities. Indole selenide compounds, which integrate the two important elements of selenium and indole, represent a new and significant structural type and have been reported to exhibit various biological activities, including antitumor, antioxidant and P-glycoprotein inhibitory activities. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in the synthesis, design and biological activity studies of indole-selenide compounds. We also provide perspectives regarding the challenges in indole-selenide-based medicinal chemistry and future research directions.