Number: 2005-032-2-700
Title: Review of stand alone drugs
Task Group
Chairman: Janos
Fischer
Members: C.
Robin Ganellin, Arun
Ganesan, and John
Proudfoot
Objective:
The project will study drugs having no structural and pharmacological
analogues. In several cases it is not possible to improve an existing
drug with the help of analogues. The "Stand Alone Drugs"
will be studied among the most frequently used drugs (e.g. Top 500
drugs). The project will afford a review article on them.
Description:
Acetylsalicylic acid is one of the oldest small molecule drugs,
which is at the same time a "Stand Alone Drug" having a
specific property as an irreversible inhibitor of COX-1 enzyme. Several
efforts tried to improve acetylsalicylic acid with the help of analogue-based
research. These efforts remained unsuccessful. The same is true in
several other Stand Alone Drugs, such as diltiazem (L-type calcium
antagonist), levodopa (dopamine pro-drug) etc.
Analogue-based Drug Discovery (ABDD) has been the most successful
direction in drug research. An IUPAC project studied this field and
a book was published in January 2006 on this topic as a result of
the IUPAC project. (see
reference) This successful approach of the drugs research has,
however, limitations. To the limitations of the ABDD belong the "Stand
Alone Drugs", whose analogue-based modifications did not afford
new drugs.
The aim of the project "Review of Stand Alone Drugs" will
identify these drugs among the most frequently used drugs (e.g. Top
500 drugs) and their role on medicinal chemistry will be studied.
Identification of Stand Alone Drugs will help the orientation among
the drugs, because stand alone drugs and analogues represent the two
main fields among the drugs. Drugs without known mechanism of action
are out of the scope of this study.