theme 1: brief history of drug discovery Flashcards
Define medicinal chemistry
a branch of chemistry focusing on drug design, synthesis and development in collaboration with biochemistry and pharmacology
what is the weight of most medicinal drugs
low molecular weight (<500Da)
what are alkaloids
class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom.
what is semisynthesis
type of chemical synthesis that uses chemical compounds isolated from natural sources
define pka
a measure of how tighty an acid holds onto a proton. so lower pka means it gives up the proton easier
what woud the pka of a strong base look like and give an example of a strong base
high pka - conjugate acid doesnt give up electron easily. example tertiary amine
what is the equation for pka
-log ka
what woud the pka of a strong acid look like
low pka - good proton donor
describe the iolation of ephedrine from the natural product Ma Huang
1) treat with aq benzene and sodium carbonate. 2) separating funnel used. discard aq phase. Organic phase will contain ephedrine and neutral organics. 3) treat with aq HCl 4) Discard of organic phase containing neutral organics and keep acidic aq phase containing ephedrine hydrochloride 5) (free-base step) treat with CHCl3 and aq K2CO3 (potassium carbonate) 6) keep organic phase containing pure ephedrine and discard of aq phase containing basic impurities 7) treat with oxalic acid for the recrystallisation of the oxalate salt to give ephedrine oxalate (more stable)
what does empirical formula tell us
what functional groups are present in different molecules and therefore how these molecules differ in terms of the elements of their structure
name some methods of investigating compound properties
IR spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy, x-ray
what is total synthesis
the specialized area within organic chemistry focuses on constructing complex organic compounds, especially those found in nature, using laboratory methods from simple commercially available precursor molecules
what are some examples of macromolecular targets
enzymes, receptors, nucleic acids in DNA/RNA
case study: what synthesis approacxh was adopted in the isolation of artemisinin
semisynthesis
case study: what group was essential to activity
endoperoxide
