Basicmedical Key

Gastric acid in the stomach (primarily hydrochloric acid) is essential to digest protein and emulsify fats. It breaks down food so it can go on to the small intestines where…

Cathepsin K is one member of a family of cysteine proteases that employ an active-site cysteine residue to promote peptide bond cleavage. Cathepsin K is highly expressed in the osteoclast…

Section 3.1     Stereochemistry is concerned with molecular shape and the relationships between molecules with identical atom connectivity but different shapes. Section 3.2     Chirality is a property of objects that are not the…

The influenza pandemic of 1918 caused the deaths of many tens of millions of people worldwide. Later pandemics in 1957 and 1968 were only somewhat less catastrophic, causing around a…

Section 7.1     Carbonyl-containing functional groups play important structural and functional roles in biological macromolecules and in drugs. Section 7.2     A carbonyl (C=O) bond is composed of a σ bonding component and a…

We have seen in this chapter that some cancer drugs exert their cytotoxic effects by forming covalent bonds with their target (e.g., the reaction of mechlorethamine with DNA bases). A…

Currently, about 80% of the new drug molecules approved for clinical use are chiral, and of these, the vast majority are developed and marketed as single enantiomers. This was not…