Fundamentals of medicinal chemistry: Thomas, G.

Abstract

Thomas, G.; John Wiley & Sons Ltd., London, United Kingdom, 2003, 285 pp., ISBN 0-470-843071, $30.00. Medicinal chemistry is concerned with the design and discovery of compounds that can be used as drugs in treatment or management of one or more components of the great variety of diseases and pathological abnormalities that afflict humankind. Although, as the title indicates, it relies heavily on creative, effective, and economical synthetic chemistry, it also involves finding solutions to numerous practical problems that are an integral part of the road from the early thoughts about lead substances all the way to their evolution into new drugs that can return a profit on the enormous financial investment that this involves. There are not only biochemical, molecular biological, pharmaceutical, pharmacological, pathological, and clinical considerations to be taken into account, but also sophisticated computing to determine the structure-activity relationships, methods of high-throughput screening of a multitude of potentially suitable compounds, and mathematical, legal, and economic considerations. This book clearly reflects the many aspects that are involved. The author is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Medicinal and Environmental Chemistry in the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom. He is the recent author of two other books, one on the same subject as the present book, the other on chemistry for pharmacy and the life sciences. His target readership includes undergraduates in pharmacy, medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmacology, and related degrees. I think that those in their more senior years will get benefit from this book much more easily than less advanced students. The bulk of the book is constituted by eight chapters that start with structure-activity relationships (SAR) and quantitative SAR and computer-aided approaches to drug design, proceed into combinatorial chemistry, examples of drug action at common target sites, pharmacokinetics, and drug metabolism, and end with lead and analogue syntheses, and drug development and production. These clearly show the author's deep knowledge of and insight into the subject even if the style is often repetitive, numerous eponymous chemical terms are introduced that are unlikely to be familiar to most of the intended readership, and no specific references are provided except in legends to tables and figures that are reproduced from other works. These core chapters are flanked by two introductory ones that review the structures and nomenclature of biomolecules and give an overview of medicinal chemistry, and by a series of appendices that attempt to provide some biological background. I found the review of biomolecules to be too inclusive and some of the appendices to be rather superficial and hastily written so that some parts are far from optimal. Each chapter ends with a series of questions to which answers are provided at the end of the text. A list of books for selected further reading is also provided. I found numerous misprints that suggest that prepublication proofreading was far from adequate. These start in the list of abbreviations where about 10% of entries are faulty in some way. These and the rather repetitive style of writing in most chapters are tedious to say the least. They could easily have been prevented so as not to detract from the obvious author's expertise in the subject matter and from the book's inherent interest.