Basic principles of medicinal chemistry

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Introduction to medicinal chemistry, drug discovery and design, the role of medicinal chemistry in drug development.

Introduction to Medicinal Chemistry: This topic provides an overview of medicinal chemistry, its scope, and the fundamental principles of drug discovery and development.
Structure and Function of Biomolecules: This topic introduces the fundamental building blocks of living organisms, including proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and lipids.
Drug Targets and Receptors: This topic provides an introduction to the various biological targets that drugs interact with in the body, including enzymes, membrane receptors, and ion channels.
Drug Design and Discovery: This topic introduces various strategies for designing and discovering new drugs, including virtual screening, high-throughput assays, and structure-based drug design.
Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics: This topic covers the basic principles of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion, as well as the interactions between drugs and their targets.
Drug Metabolism and Toxicity: This topic covers the metabolic pathways that drugs undergo in the body, as well as the factors that determine their toxicity and safety profiles.
Structure-Activity Relationships: This topic covers the relationships between the chemical structure of a drug and its biological activity, with a focus on the importance of molecular structure for drug design.
Bioisosterism and Molecular Mimicry: This topic covers the concept of bioisosterism, which involves substituting atoms or functional groups in a molecule to create analogs with similar biological activity.
Drug Design Case Studies: This topic discusses examples of successful drug discovery and development, focusing on the approaches used to overcome challenges in drug design.
Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Formulation: This topic introduces the principles of pharmaceutical chemistry, including the preparation, manufacturing, and formulation of drugs in different dosage forms.
Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR): The study of the relationship between the structure of a molecule and its biological activity.
Pharmacodynamics: The study of the molecular and biochemical interactions between a drug and its target receptor or enzymes.
Pharmacokinetics: The study of the behavior of drugs in the body, including their absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion.
Drug Design: The process of discovering and designing new drugs based on an understanding of their molecular structure and Target receptor.
Molecular Biology: The study of the molecular basis of biological processes, including the structure and function of DNA, RNA, and proteins.
Computational Chemistry: The use of computational modeling and simulation techniques to investigate the behavior of molecules and their interactions with biological systems.
Toxicology: The study of the adverse effects of chemicals, including drugs, on biological systems.
Biochemistry: The study of the chemical processes and substances that occur within living organisms.
Organic Chemistry: The study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds, including medicinal compounds.
Analytical Chemistry: The study of the composition and structure of materials, including drugs, and the development of methods for their identification and quantification.
"Medicinal or pharmaceutical chemistry is a scientific discipline at the intersection of chemistry and pharmacy involved with designing and developing pharmaceutical drugs."
"Medicinal chemistry involves the identification, synthesis, and development of new chemical entities suitable for therapeutic use."
"It also includes the study of existing drugs, their biological properties, and their quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR)."
"Medicinal chemistry is a highly interdisciplinary science combining organic chemistry with biochemistry, computational chemistry, pharmacology, molecular biology, statistics, and physical chemistry."
"Compounds used as medicines are most often organic compounds, which are often divided into the broad classes of small organic molecules and 'biologics.'"
"e.g., atorvastatin, fluticasone, clopidogrel"
"e.g., infliximab, erythropoietin, insulin glargine"
"Medicines can also be inorganic and organometallic compounds, commonly referred to as metallodrugs."
"The discipline of Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry investigates the role of metals in medicine (metallotherapeutics), which involves the study and treatment of diseases and health conditions associated with inorganic metals in biological systems."
"There are several metallotherapeutics approved for the treatment of cancer, antimicrobials, diabetes, broad-spectrum antibiotic, bipolar disorder."
"Other areas of study include: metallomics, genomics, proteomics, diagnostic agents, and radiopharmaceuticals."
"Medicinal chemistry in its most common practice—focusing on small organic molecules—encompasses synthetic organic chemistry and aspects of natural products and computational chemistry in close combination with chemical biology, enzymology, and structural biology."
"Together aiming at the discovery and development of new therapeutic agents. Practically speaking, it involves chemical aspects of identification and then systematic, thorough synthetic alteration of new chemical entities to make them suitable for therapeutic use."
"Pharmaceutical chemistry is focused on quality aspects of medicines and aims to assure fitness for the purpose of medicinal products."
"At the biological interface, medicinal chemistry combines to form a set of highly interdisciplinary sciences, setting its organic, physical, and computational emphases alongside biological areas such as biochemistry, molecular biology, pharmacognosy and pharmacology, toxicology, and veterinary and human medicine."
"These, with project management, statistics, and pharmaceutical business practices, systematically oversee altering identified chemical agents such that after pharmaceutical formulation, they are safe and efficacious, and therefore suitable for use in the treatment of disease."