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My name is Dr. Wayne Carter.
Welcome to this lecture
entitled Medicinal Chemistry
and Biochemistry: Drug
Discovery and Development.
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What is the aim of
medicinal chemistry or
medicinal biochemistry?
The aim is to generate
a compound or compounds
that are capable of modifying
a biological activity.
This compound should
be beneficial
and may be a medical treatment.
Collectively, this requires
an interdisciplinary approach
utilising chemistry,
biochemistry, pharmacology,
and physiology.
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Drug target selection.
The compound, that is the drug,
that is available, or
that can be synthesised
should exhibit the specific
desired properties
against the
macromolecular target.
For example, the drug could be
a small molecule with
specific binding to
a protein receptor that
triggers its activation
or inhibition with a
required biological effect.
So, for example,
the image shown.
This is a protein
within a lipid bilayer,
and in red would be
the small ligands
that bind to that
particular receptor.
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Compound production (synthesis)
There is needed, a series
of chemical reactions,
to be undertaken to produce
the required compound
or compounds.
This may utilise
pre-prepared chemicals
from natural sources or utilise
those stored in a
chemical library.
The compound or
compounds produced
need to be of suitable yield
as well as suitable purity,
and the process itself needs
to be capable of scale-up.
Drug assessment.
