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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.
The phrase "drug design" is similar to ligand design (i.e., design of a molecule that will bind tightly to its target). [6] Although design techniques for prediction of binding affinity are reasonably successful, there are many other properties, such as bioavailability, metabolic half-life, and side effects, that first must be optimized before a ligand can become a safe and effictive drug.
[1] [4] Chemicals in this family can act either directly by stimulating the nicotinic or muscarinic receptors (thus mimicking acetylcholine), or indirectly by inhibiting cholinesterase, promoting acetylcholine release, or other mechanisms. [5] Common uses of parasympathomimetics include glaucoma, Sjögren syndrome and underactive bladder. [6]
Piperonal can be prepared by the oxidative cleavage of isosafrole or by using a multistep sequence from catechol or 1,2-methylenedioxybenzene.Synthesis from the latter chemical is accomplished through a condensation reaction with glyoxylic acid followed by cleaving the resulting α-hydroxy acid with an oxidizing agent.
With advances in medicinal chemistry, most modern antibacterials are semisynthetic modifications of various natural compounds. [79] These include, for example, the beta-lactam antibiotics , which include the penicillins (produced by fungi in the genus Penicillium ), the cephalosporins , and the carbapenems .
Lipinski's rule of five, also known as Pfizer's rule of five or simply the rule of five (RO5), is a rule of thumb to evaluate druglikeness or determine if a chemical compound with a certain pharmacological or biological activity has chemical properties and physical properties that would likely make it an orally active drug in humans.
The mechanisms of sympathomimetic drugs can be direct-acting (direct interaction between drug and receptor), such as α-adrenergic agonists, β-adrenergic agonists, and dopaminergic agonists; or indirect-acting (interaction not between drug and receptor), such as MAOIs, COMT inhibitors, release stimulants, and reuptake inhibitors that increase the levels of endogenous catecholamines.
Plasma concentrations via this route peak within 2–4 hours. Intramuscular administration of lincosamides results in strong absorption, with peak plasma levels being reached in 1–2 hours. Around 90% of clindamycin is bound to plasma proteins, and is generally more stable and rapidly absorbed than lincomycin.