Introduction Flashcards
What is medicinal chemistry?
A large field that encompasses many disciplines (synthetic organic chemistry, enzymology, biochemistry metabolism, etc.)
What do medicinal chemists do? What do they produce?
Medicinal chemists discover new chemical entities with pharmacological effects and, by a process of chemical modification, produce lead compounds and from the lead compounds produce new, safe and effective drugs to treat disease
What’s a chemical entity?
Any (likely organic) chemical
What is a lead compound?
A chemical compound with the desired pharmacological effect that can be modified chemically to improve its potency, absorption, distribution, metabolic profile (or any aspect of the drug)
How do you improve a drug?
By utilizing the knowledge of, or determining the Structure Activity Relationship (SAR), a medicinal chemist can turn lead compounds into safe and effective drugs
Describe the quantitative SAR. Why is it important?
Generating a mathematical relationship between physicochemical properties of a series of compounds and their pharmacologic activity. In this case the “compounds” are modifications to the lead. This mathematical relationship can predict the most potent structure
Describe the qualitative SAR.
The relationship between the structure and the pharmacological activity of the drug, i.e., how arrangement of functional groups on the drug molecule effect pharmacological activity (absorption, secretion, etc.)
What is an important chemical property of drugs?
Electronegativity
What is electronegativity? Why is it important?
Electronegativity is a measure of the tendency of an atom to attract a bonding pair of electrons (basically: what would the electrons do?)
Electronegative atoms can polarize a molecule resulting in a permanent dipole
How do functional groups affect electrons?
Electrons can move around (delocalize) depending on functional groups.
What are the two ways that electrons move?
There are two ways electron density can move through a molecule: resonance and induction
Define resonance
The movement of electron density through pi-bonds (i.e., though alliterating single and double bonds aka conjugated systems)
Define induction
The movement of electron density through sigma-bonds (i.e, through saturated carbons)
How do functional groups affect the movement of electrons (through resonance and/or induction)?
A functional group may be electron donating (ED) or electron withdrawing (EW) depending on if ED or EW happens by resonance (pi-bond) or by induction (sigma-bonds). Therefore the same functional group may be ED or EW depending on if it happens through pi or sigma-bonds.
Besides the type of bonds, what else affects ED and EW?
ED and EW also depends on electronegativity, the presence of lone pair electrons, multiple bonds and the geometry of the molecule
In resonance, how does delocalization happen?
Delocalization happens through a series of pi-bones = conjugation. There’s a hydride structure, which has partial double bon character
In induction, how does delocalization occur?
Delocalization happens because of the distribution of electron density over the molecule through sigma-bonds
Where do we find EW inductively but ED by resonance?
In electronegative atoms with a lone pair (-OH, -NH2)
Exceptions are halogens, which are EW but usually do not participate in ED
Where do we find ED by induction?
Alkyl groups, the more branched, the more donating
Where do we find EW only by induction?
Atoms with no lone pair of electrons but have partial positive charge or a charge of +1 (-CF3, -NH3+, halogens)
Where do we find EW inductively and by resonance?
Attached group with a double bond O or N or triple bond N (NO2, CN, SO2R, SO2NHR)
Where do we find EW or ED by resonance?
CH2=CHR
When attached to a benzene ring
What is acid/free acid?
Protonated acid (HA)
What is conjugate base?
Deprotonated acid (A-)
What is free base?
Deprotonated base (B)
What is conjugate acid?
Protonated base (HB+)