Nonmessenger Targets for Drug Action I Endogenous cellular structures

• Published in: Medicinal Chemistry
• Main Author: Weaver, Thomas Nogrady Donald F.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Oxford University Press 11-08-2005
• Subjects: Biochemistry; Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics; Neuroscience; messengers; organism; neurotransmitters; manipulating; immunomodulators
• ISBN: 9780195104554; 0195104552
• DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780195104554.003.0009

The goal of medicinal chemistry is to discover and develop novel chemical compounds (new chemical entities) that will influence the function of the host organism in some beneficial manner. As discussed in chapters 4–6, the most obvious approach is either to mimic or to block endogenous messengers used by the organism itself to control its own biochemistry. These endogenous messengers may be neurotransmitters, hormones, or immunomodulators working at the electrical, molecular, or cellular level, respectively. However, not all pathologies afflicting the human organism can be addressed by manipulating these messengers. Accordingly, it becomes necessary to target other cellular components (this chapter) and/or endogenous macromolecules (chapter 8) that are not normally directly controlled through binding to endogenous messengers. To identify such cellular targets for drug design requires an appreciation of cellular structure. The study of microscopic cellular structure is termed cytology. Cytology should be distinguished from histology (the microscopic study of tissues; i.e., functional aggregates of similar cells, such as neural tissue) and gross anatomy (the study of organs and body parts, such as the brain).