Book Review: Medicinal Chemistry of Bioactive Natural Products. Edited by Xiao-tian Liang and Wei-shuo Fang

2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (9) ◽  
pp. 869-869
Author(s):  
Hans-Ulrich Humpf
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Medicinal Chemistry ◽  
Bioactive Natural Products

Abiotic scaffolds in medicinal chemistry: not a waste of chemical space

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-224
Author(s):  
Ronald W Brown
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Medicinal Chemistry ◽  
Chemical Space ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Chemical Entity ◽  
Complex Chemical ◽  
Bioactive Natural Products ◽  
Gray Area ◽  
3D Topology

It is well established that medicinal chemists should depart from the flat, sp2-dominated nature of traditional drugs and incorporate complexities of bioactive natural products, such as sp3-richness, 3D topology and chirality. There is a gray area, however, in the relevance of newly developed chemical scaffolds that exhibit these complexities but do not correlate to anything observed in nature. This can leave synthetic methodologists searching for structural similarities between their newly developed products and known natural products in search of justification. This article offers a perspective on how these types of complex ‘abiotic' scaffolds can be appreciated purely on the basis of their structural novelty, and identifies the unique advantages arising when a complex chemical entity unrecognized by nature is introduced to biological systems.

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