All Questions
Tagged with medicinal-chemistry biochemistry
20 questions
2
votes
1
answer
172
views
Why is guanine sometimes referred to as "Acyclovir Impurity B"?
"Acyclovir Impurity B" is the name for guanine used by a handful of relatively low-traffic websites. Googling the term shows this. It is nearly always with a capital letter at the beginning ...
1
vote
1
answer
178
views
How are non-racemic drugs produced?
In many cases the L- or S- stereoisomer of organic compounds is vastly more bioactive than other enantiomers. So we see pharmaceutical companies producing escitalopram (i.e., S-citalopram), ...
- 3,352
2
votes
1
answer
720
views
Ritalin/Concerta/Methylphenidate is an amphetamine?
FIDE (the governing body of international chess competition) says here:
The most relevant banned substances for chess are:
• Amphetamines – e.g. Adderall, Ritalin
(...)
Image:
I think either ...
- 291
1
vote
3
answers
69
views
When an aqueous extract of a substance is said to be administered at a certain quantity, is the quoted mass analogous to one as original substance?
I'm trying to read studies about the possible toxicity of the leaves of some plant often said to possess positive medicinal properties.
In the studies, performed on rats, it is usually said that an ...
- 147
4
votes
0
answers
74
views
Can bis-quaternary aromatic compounds act directly on acetylcholine receptors?
The book Cholinesterases and Anticholinesterase Agents gives examples of bis-quaternary aromatic compounds that are capable of inhibiting acetylcholinesterase. Page 400 gives examples of some such ...
- 1,274
9
votes
2
answers
504
views
Why are drugs mixed with their sodium salts?
I have come across quite a few drugs that are of the form $\ce{HA + NaA}$, where $\ce{A}$ is your target organic compound. A few examples of this are:
Carmicide which is a mixture of Sodium Citrate ...
- 6,338
1
vote
1
answer
270
views
What is the significance of Sphingolipids in human?
I want to know the significance of sphingolipids in human. I have learnt that sphingomyelin is the most significant type of sphingolipid in human. Also that the sphingomyelin serves as a structural ...
- 1,303
3
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Betaine HCl stomach pH
It seems betaine HCl is often recommended for those suffering from "low stomach acid" -- which, as I understand, is having too high stomach pH for proper digestion (especially for proteolysis via ...
- 1,566
0
votes
1
answer
12k
views
What kind of materials are plastic syringes made from?
I'm trying to figure out what kind of materials my disposable plastic syringe is made from. I have a Medefil MIS-1130 syringe and when I visited the company website I couldn't find any information on ...
10
votes
1
answer
970
views
Is lithium L-threonate a potential brain medicine?
Lithium ions have known neuroprotective qualities. That would explain its therapeutic benefit in some mental disorders. It is also well known that lithium carbonate must be taken in toxic doses to get ...
- 101
6
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Regarding the mechanism for biological activity of tyramine, amphetamine and ephedrine
Graham Patrick explains the mechanism for the activity of tyramine, amphetamine and ephedrine in his book Introduction to Medicinal Chemistry as follows:
Some amines such as tyramine , amphetamine ...
- 6,253
11
votes
3
answers
870
views
Can we prolong life? [closed]
This is rather a bunch of questions that I decided to post on Chemistry StackExchange since I thought the chemists would have the most knowledge about the chemical processes of life.
So recently I ...
- 3,050
14
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Is it possible to make a drug that liquefies heart plaque to treat heart disease?
Is it possible to make a drug that liquefies heart plaque to treat heart disease without damaging other parts of the body? If so, would the liquefied plaque be eliminated as regular fluid is through ...
- 377
3
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Chirality on Propranolol
I'm a bit confused when asked to specify the chiral carbons on this sketch of Propranolol as I'm not sure how the $\ce{H3C}$ and $\ce{CH3}$ play in if they are reversed in the name like that...Does ...
- 703
10
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why do many pharmaceuticals contain fluorine?
What exactly does fluorination of some compound do in a biological sense?
I read the following things about what fluorine does for drugs:
Fluorine withdraws electron density and can make an acid ...
- 19.2k
5
votes
2
answers
855
views
What is the active ingredient in this "stimulant?"
It is an easily defensible argument that this is a medical question rather than a chemistry one, however, I feel that it leans ever so slightly towards chemistry, and so I posted it here.
There is a "...
- 161
17
votes
3
answers
1k
views
What is the mechanism of action of anaesthetics?
A range of very different compounds are used in medicine as anaesthetics. They don't seem to have much in common chemically but they all seem to keep people asleep while medics are doing nasty things ...
- 37.8k
3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Are there ways to predict which chemicals will kill certain bacteria?
Are there ways to compute what chemicals kill a give bacteria but not another given bacteria ?
Does that help much to make medication ?
- 305
17
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why does the sulfone ring in tazobactam open when the lactam is hydrolyzed?
One of the drugs I work with is a beta-lactam (4-membered ring with an amide bond) fused to a sulfone ring, tazobactam.
It's relatively stable in water; the lactam is not significantly hydrolyzed ...
- 2,573
21
votes
3
answers
3k
views
What are known examples of drugs that racemize/stereoconvert in vivo, and how are they converted?
It is known that although only the (S)-enantiomer of the infamous sedative thalidomide possesses teratogenic properties, it is not very useful to administer the pure (R)-enantiomer since it is ...
user95