ABSTRACT
Medicinal chemistry provides pharmacy
students with a thorough understanding of drug mechanisms of action,
structure-activity relationships (SAR), acid-base and physicochemical
properties, and absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity
(ADMET) profiles.
The first
medical chemistry courses were taught in Jena in the early 1600s and The New
Chemical Medicine Invented by Paracelsus was published in the Ottoman Empire
shortly thereafter.
Medicinal
Chemistry Research is a journal for the prompt disclosure of novel experimental
achievements in the many facets of drug design, drug discovery, and the
elucidation of mechanisms of action of biologically active compounds.
Medicinal
chemistry is a specialized area with an emphasis on the study of drug design,
drug synthesis, and pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis.
Compounds used as medicines are most often
organic compounds, which are often divided into the broad classes of small
organic molecules (e.g., atorvastatin, fluticasone, clopidogrel) and
“biologics” (infliximab, erythropoietin, insulin glargine), the latter of which
are most often medicinal preparations of proteins (natural and recombinant
antibodies, hormones etc.). Inorganic and organometallic compounds are also
useful as drugs (e.g., lithium and platinum-based agents such as lithium
carbonate and cisplatin as well as gallium.
