Intro to medchem Flashcards
What are the objectives for drug development?
Increase activity
Reduce side effects
Provide easy and efficient administration to the patient
What skills are required for a medicinal chemist?
Organic chemistry
Biology that relates to the target disease
Factors that influence ADME
Knowledge of regulatory requirements
Current knowledge of competitive therapies
Superior interpersonal skills
What must be considered in drug design?
The risk benefit ratio
What is a drug?
Pure chemical compound of no known chemical structure.
It may be a mixture of stereoisomers
A material that can modulate some aspect of cell function
What should happen with a drug is administered to a patient or animal?
It should produce a desired and predicted biological response
Can drugs have highly specific effects?
Yes
What arises as a result of where compounds bind to the system?
Specificity
What do drugs utilise in order to function?
Molecular recognition processes
What is involved in drug design?
Determining what biological response is required
Establishing chemical structure that produces the desired response
Making the chemicals at an acceptable cost
What do normal healthy state cells do?
Communicate through small molecules
Synthesise and degrade chemical molecules
Mediate ion concentration to the benefit of the organism
What happens in a disease state or degeneration of cell communication, synthesis & degradation, mediation of ion concentration?
Impaired cellular activity and ill health
How does administration of a drug restore a diseased cell to normal function?
Either by
Regulation of an enzyme
Interaction with signalling receptor
What level do drugs work at?
The cellular level
What are the main cellular targets?
Lipids
Carbohydrates
Proteins
nucleic acids
What is an example of a drug that target lipids?
Anaesthetics, amphotericin B (antibiotic)
