Medicinal Chemistry

(5 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

IC - Co. Galway, Ireland: In this course we will introduce some of chemistry used in the discovery and design of drug molecules. This includes the use of computational modelling to investigate the interaction between drug molecules and their protein targets, methods for understanding the structure and function of biomolecules, and the discovery of drug molecules from natural products. You will be taught through a mixture of lectures outlining the theory and giving case studies of these and computational and experimental practical work. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CH 3441: Principles of drug action; drug properties; drug targets and modes of action. Molecular components of cells: lipids, proteins, nucleic acids. Control through non-covalent interactions: electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic. Conformations of biological macromolecules, organisation of cell, basic biochemical machinery. Sites for drug action: DNA/RNA (alkylation, intercalation etc.), enzymes (inhibition), receptors (agonism, antagonism).Enzyme substrates/transition states, receptor ligands (hormones and neurotransmitters) as lead compounds for drug development. Drug development, e.g. from a biologically active natural product: identification of pharmacophore, application of QSAR. Alternative sources of lead compounds (random screening, combinatorial chemistry, protein crystallography/molecular modelling).Pharmacodynamics: drug transport, stability, metabolism. Use of pro-drugs.