Categories: Medicinal Chemistry

Molecules and Medicine

Description

Molecules and Medicine provides, for the first time ever, a completely integrated look at chemistry, biology, drug discovery, and medicine. Beautifully illustrated and presented in full colour, this book delves into the discovery, application, and mode of action of more than one hundred of the most significant molecules now used in modern medicine.

With focus on the most important and commonly used medicines such as anti-clotting agents, antibiotics, Viagra and anti-malarial and antidepressant drugs, coverage includes the condition it treats, the summary of its industrial development, the year put into practice, the biological target for the medicine, the human proteins related to the disease, the metabolism or action of the condition treated, and interacting side effects and related drugs. Diagrams revealing the shape and structure of molecular make-up for each medicine accompany the text. Interspersed where appropriate, can be found background sections such as a brief survey of immunology, to help guide the readers understanding.

Editorial Review

Molecules and Medicine is directed at a broad audience, and tries to explain drugs and diseases in an understandable way. Thus, the book even contains an introduction on the make-up of molecules, where the fundamentals of structure and bonding are explained. This introduction is nicely done and contains attractive pictures, but students will know these principles from other books, and I doubt if a reader without any chemical training will be able to follow them at the pace they are presented. This chapter is much too short, and the concepts of medicinal chemistry are not mentioned. Thus, the reader will miss out on understanding the biochemical principles and important molecular properties that are responsible for the intermolecular interactions with a target; these latter are far more conducive to an understanding of drug development than isolated observations on orbitals and three-dimensional biological macromolecules. The untrained reader might have more interest in the various stages of drug development, but will find nothing about this in the book, and so will never appreciate the efforts and costs that must be expended for each of the drugs described in the following chapters to reach commercialization.

However, readers who have the benefit of chemical, biochemical and medicinal chemical training from the corresponding textbooks should certainly take a look at this book, since the subsequent chapters are recommendable on the strength of their brief and readable illustrations of the important targets and drugs. The biochemistry behind specific diseases is explained schematically, drugs are displayed as structures and 3D models, and for some molecules a depiction of the inhibited enzyme is also provided. Here, the reader will find citations to supplemental literature on interesting diseases, introductory explanations and a multitude of commercial drugs; on this basis, the book can be recommended to obtain a general overview of current research trends as well as an introduction to a specific topic.

Contents

INTRODUCTION
UNDERSTANDING STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS OF ORGANIC MOLECULES.
SOME COMMON MOLECULES.
PROTEINS AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL PROTEIN STRUCTURE
INFLAMMATORY, CARDIOVASCULAR AND METABOLIC DISEASES
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AGENTS
Acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin™)
Naproxen (Aleve™)
How Do Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Work?.
Other Eicosanoids in Inflammation
An Overview of Inflammation
Celecoxib (Celebrex™).
Prednisone (Deltasone™)
Methotrexate (Trexall™)
Allopurinol (Zyloprim™)
ANTIASTHMATIC AND ANTIALLERGIC AGENTS
Salmeterol (Advair™)
Fluticasone Propionate (Flovent™).
Montelukast Sodium (Singulair™).Tiotropium Bromide (Spiriva™).
Loratadine (Claritin™)
TYPE 2 DIABETES
An Overview of Metabolic Syndrome
ANTIDIABETIC AND CHOLESTEROL-LOWERING AGENTS
Metformin (Glucophage™)
Glipizide (Glucotrol™)
Pioglitazone (Actos™)
Sitagliptin (Januvia™)
Atorvastatin (Lipitor™)
Ezetimibe (Zetia™)
CARDIOVASCULAR AGENTS
Atenolol (Tenormin™)
Enalapril (Vasotec™)
Candesartan Ciletexil (Atacand™)
Aliskiren (Tekturna™)
Amlodipine (Norvasc™)
Nitroglycerin
Clopidogrel Bisulfate (Plavix™)
Digoxin (Lanoxin™)
RECEPTORS AND SIGNALING
Information Flow into the Cell by Chemical Signaling.
PART III.
REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE
Oral Contraceptives
Testosterone
Mifepristone (Mifeprex™)
Oxytocin (Oxytocin™)
Sildenafil (Viagra™)
OSTEOPOROSIS
Some Aspects of Osteoporosis
Alendronate (Fosamax™).
Calcitriol (Rocaltrol™)
Raloxifene (Evista™)
Teriparatide (Forteo™)
GLAUCOMA AND ANTIULCER AGENTS
Latanoprost (Xalatan™)
Ranitidine (Zantac™)
Omeprazole (Prilosec™)
PART IV.
AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE AND ORGAN TRANSPLANT
A Brief Survey of the Immune System
IMMUNOSUPPRESSIVE AGENTS
Azathioprine (Imuran™)
Mycophenolate Mofetil (CellCept™)
Cyclosporin (Neoral™)
Tacrolimus (Prograf™)
FTY720 (Fingolimod)
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
ANTIBIOTICS
Amoxicillin (Amoxil™)
Cefaclor (Ceclor™)
Doxycycline (Vibramycin™)
Azithromycin (Zithromax™)
Ciprofloxacin (Cipro™)
Trimethoprim (Triprim™)
Amikacin (Amikin™)
Vancomycin (Vancocin™)
Linezolid (Zyvox™)
Isoniazid (Laniazid™)
Ancillary Antibiotics
Drug Resistance
ANTIVIRAL AGENTS
On Viruses and Viral Diseases
Acyclovir (Zovirax™)
Ribavirin (Virazole™)
Oseltamivir (Tamiflu™)
Zidovudine (Retrovir, AZT™)
Zalcitabine (Hivid™)
Nevirapine (Viramune™)
Efavirenz (Sustiva™)
Lopinavir + Ritonavir (Kaletra™)
UK427857 (Maraviroc)
ANTIFUNGAL AGENTS
Amphotericin (Fungilin™)
Fluconazole (Diflucan™)
Caspofungin (Cancidas™)
Terbinafine (Lamisil™)
ANTIMALARIAL AND ANTIPARASITIC AGENTS
Parasitic Diseases: A Focus on Malaria
Chloroquine (Aralen™)
Artemether + Lumefantrine (CoArtem™)
Atovaquone + Proguanil (Malarone™)
Miltefosine (Impavido™)
Nitazoxanide (Alinia™)
Ivermectin (Stromectol™)
PART V.
MALIGNANT DISEASE
An Overview of Cancer
Capecitabine (Xeloda™)
Carboplatin (Paraplatin™)
Vinblastine (Velban™)
Paclitaxel (Taxol™)
Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan™)
Tamoxifen (Nolvadex™)
Irinotecan (Camptosar™)
Bleomycin (Blenoxane™)
Imatinib (Gleevec™)
Sunitinib (Sutent™)
Bortezomib (Velcade™)
Ancillary Anticancer Agents
PART VI.
DRUGS ACTING ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
PAIN AND ANALGESIA
Lidocaine (Xylocaine™)
Morphine (Avinza™)
Acetaminophen (Tylenol™)
Fentanyl (Duragesic™)
Sodium Thiopental (Sodium Pentothal™)
Gabapentin (Neurontin™)
Diazepam (Valium™)
Sumatriptan (Imitrex™)
HYPNOTICS (INSOMNIA) AND ANTISMOKING
Zolpidem (Ambien™)
Ramelteon (Rozerem™)
Varenicline (Chantix™)
The Brain, Neurotransmission and Neurotransmitters
NEURODEGENERATIVE AND PSYCHIATRIC DISEASES
Levodopa (Larodopa™)
Donepezil (Aricept™)
ANTIEPILEPTIC AGENTS
ANTIANXIETY AGENTS
ANTIDEPRESSANTS
ANTIPSYCHOTICS.