Medicinal chemistry: a molecular and biochemical approach
Thomas Nogrady and Donald F. Weaver
Oxford: OUP 2005 | Pp649 | £55.00 each | ISBN0 195 10455 2
Reviewed by John Mann
There has been a recent proliferation of degree courses in medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry, and this is a reflection of the growing awareness that chemistry underpins drug discovery and development. Recent publicity surrounding drugs like the cholesterol-lowering statins and the anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx has further aroused general interest and awareness in clinically used drugs. So this new edition of the classic 1988 text by Nogrady (now with a co-author) is timely.
Like the earlier book, this edition emphasises the mechanism of drug action rather than drug design. The authors state that they have not attempted to produce a ‘telephone directory’ of drugs, but I found virtually all of the drugs that I sought via the book’s comprehensive index.
The first three chapters describe the basic principles of drug design and include all of the expected features on receptors, enzymes and the physical chemistry of structure–activity relationships. The coverage is excellent. The rest of the book comprises six chapters based on a drug target-centred approach with three chapters each on messenger molecules and non-messenger molecules, and their respective receptors for drug interaction. This first group includes the neurotransmitters, hormones and the immunomodulators. The chapter on immunomodulators is particularly good since the topic is not usually covered in texts of this kind. The second trio of chapters starts with drugs that interact with endogenous cellular structures, eg with ion channels, cell membrane proteins and the cell nucleus, which includes most of the anticancer drugs. The next chapter describes all of the enzyme targets for drugs. The final chapter looks at drugs that interact with exogenous pathogens and toxins, ie the antibacterial and anti-fungal agents. There is also a useful summary of drugs and their respective pharmacological activities.
This book is very different to G. L. Patrick’s Medicinal chemistry (also published by OUP), which is probably the standard undergraduate text. While Patrick concentrates on drug design and function, this new book is more of a compendium of drugs and their targets, it is also more comprehensive and is probably more suited to postgraduates. My copy of the 1988 Nogrady has fallen apart through constant use and reflects my own enthusiasm for both the earlier edition and this new edition.
However, I must comment on the chemical structures. While many of these are excellent and include full stereochemistry, there is no overall consistency. It is both infuriating and frustrating to find similar structures on the same page drawn in different arrangements, some with and some without stereochemistry. This mars an otherwise excellent book.
