What is Medicinal Chemistry........................................

 What is Medicinal Chemistry........................................  

Medicinal chemistry is a branch of science that deals with the discovery, design and development of new molecules for treating diseases. It is associated with interactions of biologically active compounds at the molecular level. It is an interdisciplinary science that is connected synthetic organic chemistry and also with various biological are as such as biochemistry, molecular biology, Pharmacognosy and Pharmacology, Toxicology.

 Medicinal chemistry mainly focuses on organic compounds, which are often divided  as small organic molecules and biologics. The organic molecules can be natural or synthetic origin. The natural sources include several alkaloids, glycosides, hormones, vitamins and antibiotics. The modifications in the structure of natural drugs results in synthetic drugs like analgesics, antispasmodics, local anaesthetics and sympathomimetics. Some of the drugs like barbiturates, diuretics, antihistamines and several antimalarial are pure synthetic origin.

 Medicinal chemistry also deals with the understanding of the physiochemical properties of pharmacologically active molecules, their mechanism of action, metabolism and stereo chemical aspects.

The addition of newer techniques ranging from recombinant DNA and site directed mutagenesis have increased the possibility of finding new targets for treating diseases. The discovery of human insulin and growth hormones are the examples of drug manufactured by these processes. Significant advances in X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques help to identify the different drug receptors representations.

Medicinal chemistry is also focusing on new technologies like combinatorial chemistry and high throughput to produce new entities that can be used for the treatment of various diseases.. 


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