Chemistry Of Drugs And Medicines Assignment Sample

Introduction

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Task 1

Drug/medicine: Drug or medicine can be defined as the substances that are generally used for prevention, diagnosis as well as treating the different symptoms of abnormal conditions. Laboratory medicine is a clinical science or discipline that is mainly devoted to quantitative measurement and qualitative assessment of substances that can easily be assayed in different biological fluids of animals including humans for medical research purposes (Lippi and Plebani, 2020). Medicines are used for easing pain, control of blood sugar, curing any infection or many other things that can provide relief from health risks of humans and other animals.
Placebo: Placebo can be defined as the pharmacologically inert preparation that is prescribed more especially for the mental relief of different patients who are suffering from some accurate disorder. Placebo treatment using drugs includes some clinical, neurobiological along with laboratory applications for relief of pain (Klinger et al. 2018). Placebo treatment is beneficial for understanding the effect of any new drug in some treatment in particular conditions.
Therapeutic window: Therapeutic window (TW) can be defined as the range of time between the injury and the possible treatment during which the treatment can still be effective to heal the wounds. Short term as well as low to moderate corticosteroids strategy of therapy in TW can provide benefits for serious patients (Li et al. 2020).
Tolerance: Tolerance can be defined as the responses that a patient provides to any drug when a particular drug is used for a repeated period. In other words, tolerance can be defined as the survival transient of any patient during exposure to any high concentration medicine such as antibiotics (Yan and Bassler, 2019). Tolerance occurs when any person does not respond to any drug as it has responded for the first time.
Side-effects: Side effects can be termed as the adverse reactions of any drug that are unintended during treatment for patients. Drugs are generally helpful to treat critical disease however, the negative effects of the drugs in any human body is termed as their side effects (Zhao et al. 2018). Side effects generally occur due to interaction with other drugs or killing the cells after consumption that causes a negative influence on health.

Task 2

A.

Salicylic acid and aspirin

Dissimilarities:

• Salicylic acid contains one acidic group along with the presence of one hydroxyl group at the ortho position concerning that of the carboxylic acid group. Whereas the aspiring contains an acetyl group that is, absent in salicylic acid.
• Aspirin can be used as an antipyretic in medical treatment whereas salicylic acid can be used as salicylate for removal of the outer layer of skin.

Similarities:

• Both of these molecules contain a carboxylic group in the structure that has made them reactive to any base.
• Another similarity between the structures is the base of a benzene ring for both of these molecules that is reactive, for which it has usage in medical science for making antipyretic drugs.
  
  

Diazepam, nitrazepam and chlordiazepoxide

Dissimilarities:

• DZP is commonly termed as Valium having the presence of chlorine group at seventh position along with the presence of phenyl group at fifth position with the addition of ketone group at second position (Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022a).
• Nitrazepam does not have chlorine group instead of which nitro group is present at seventh position along with presence of phenyl group at fifth position with addition of ketone group at second position (Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022b).
• Chlordiazepoxide contains chlorine group at 78th position along with presence of imine group at second position with charged nitrogen and oxygen in its structure (Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022c).

Similarities:

• Both of these structures have a similar benzene ring that is mainly fused to a seven-membered ring of diazepine along with presence of phenyl ring at fifth position.

Amphetamine and adrenaline

Dissimilarities:

• Amphetamine is different in structure compared to adrenaline, as an amphetamine an amine group is present at second positions with presence of methyl group in its neighbour (.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022d).
• Adrenaline contains one hydroxyl group along with dimethylamino ethyl group at second position witty addition of two other hydroxyl groups at first and second position (Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022e).

Similarities:

• Similarities indicate presence of both benzene rings as the base for which amphetamine is closely related to adrenaline.
  
  
  

Morphine, codeine and diamorphine

Dissimilarities:

• Differences of structures include presence of hexahydroxy group along with presence of methanobenzofuro and isoquinoline group in morphine (Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022f).
• Codeine molecule contains methoxy group at the ninth position along with presence of hexahydroxy group with similar methanobenzofuro group at 12th position (Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022g).
• Presence of dihydro group at seventh and eighth position of this molecule. In addition, epoxy group at fourth and fifth position in diamorphine. In addition, the presence of methylmorphinan group at 17th position along with diol acetate at third and sixth position makes the structure different from others.

Similarities:

• Presence of benzene rings along with methanobenzofuro and isoquinoline group in the molecules are the similarities in structure.
  
  

B.

Functional groups (FG) present in molecules of drugs are the main aspect using which any drugs reach against some particular health disease. Modification of the functional group indicates the conversion of FG for more intense chemical reactions with different molecules. Modification is essential, especially for drugs as it helps to react with disease effectively and more vigorously, through which recovery of patients can easily be possible. Functional groups of different drugs such as ester, phosphates, carbamates and amides are highly reactive and cleaved effectively as well as enzymatically within the body (Zhang and Tang, 2018). The modification increases reactivity of functional groups that support separate chemical erection of drugs inside the body to react against the diseases. FG is generally determined by the intrinsic reactivity of different parent molecules of a drug that helps in improving the reactivity as well as several properties of the drug for which modification is necessary.
General process that is used in the early-stage development of potential drugs includes the first stage of discovery and development with the research on FG present within a drug. The next step is preclinical research in which newly developed drugs are tested in the laboratory to measure their safety and effectiveness. The next stage is clinical research that includes the implementation of drugs on people for testing safety or any side effects in the body. FDA review is essential for checking the documentation that indicates the potentiality of drugs in a specific disease. FDA can sometimes require the drug manufacturer to do some extensive research about a new drug that is developed before its approval for use (Darrow et al. 2020). The last step is the motoring by the FDA about the safety of drugs after allowing use for mass people.
Functional group in a drug provides different effects such as electronic effects, steric effects along with the effect of solubility. Modification of the FG helps to increase these effects that enhance the effectiveness of the drug against a specific disease. The presence of the active FG at the exterior portion of dendrimers allows a proper conjugation of different biomolecules to surface while different drugs can be effectively loaded at the interior (Mitchell et al. 2021). Delivery of drugs depends on modification of FG as it increases effectiveness for which requirement of those drugs increases significantly. Safety includes proper testing of drugs after modification of FG as effective modification helps to improve its reactiveness in water. Modification of FG is done based on testing that increases safety for consumption during any health issue.

Task 3

Alcohol detection in breath

• Breath analyser (BA) is the instrument using which traces of alcohol can easily be detected in breadth. BA mainly functions by calculating the amount of the existing alcohol in the blood of a person by determining the concentration of blood alcohol (BAC).
• The fuel cell present inside the BA contains two electrodes that are made of platinum with the presence of acid-electrolyte substances. During the flow of air of any suspect into one side of this fuel cell, the platinum easily oxidised the alcohol that is present in the air by generating acetic acid, protons and respective electrons. Techniques of adsorption are the frequently used strategy in breath analysers due to their simplicity in alcohol consumption detection (Ghosh et al. 2020). Silver nitrate and sulfuric acids are the main ingredients that provide test results in BA by conversion of potassium dichromate into the chromium sulphate.
• Using this BA, the major detection is the amount of alcohol present in the blood of any suspect. However, this device is not a complex one for detecting the accurate ethanol molecule as it detects only a part of that ethanol molecule. However, ethanol is not always a detecting substance ion BA as it can detect non-alcoholic beverages that can provide false results. This is not always ethanol as it is not able sometimes to differentiate between other alcohols during tests.
• Ethanol is not always a detecting substance in BA as it can detect non-alcoholic beverages that can provide false results. The presence of small traces of the alcohol is the main reason for such false results during detection of alcohol in breath.

Alcohol detection in urine

• Ethyl glucuronide test (EtG) is the technique through which traces of alcohol such as ethanol in urine can easily be determined. A small portion of ethanol that is completely oxidised in the liver is excreted through urine using which EtG can detect the ethanol in urine (van de Luitgaarden et al. 2019). Immunoassay is another technique that can be used for the detection of drugs and alcohol present in urine.
• EtG contains ethyl glucuronide that is a breakdown product of the alcohol used as the intoxicating agent in this instrument. The cut-off level for EtG test is 75-100ng/mL above that indicates traces of drugs or alcohol present inside the body. According to Foley (2018), EtG helps in the identification of traces of alcohol by detoxification of ethanol using activated glucuronic acid.
• The trace detection of alcohol is the main aspect of detection in this EtG test, as it cannot ideally trace the actual amount of alcohol present inside the body. The detecting alcohol is ethanol that is consumed by any individual. Erroneous detection strategy of EtG can sometimes detect other thighs that contain small traces of alcohol.
• Accuracy in EtG is not as prominent as inaccuracy in ethanol detection causes unreliable data gathering. The presence of small amounts of alcohol sensitivity that can be present in different consuming can cause false results in EtG. Detection of alcohol that has passed more than 72 hours is not possible using the EtG instrument that is an important problem.

Alcohol detection in blood

• Blood alcohol test is the strategy using which trace of alcohol in blood can be measured effectively. Blood test helps in determining heavy levels of alcohol present in blood by detecting BAC. A needle is required for collecting blood for this test to detect traces of alcohol. CDT style of blood test is a helping technique to detect alcohol in blood, especially for heavy drinkers.
• Collection of blood using a needle and testing them using CDT biomarker test helps to detect alcohol present in blood of any individual.
• This blood test using CDT helps in detecting ethanol that is consumed by any person. The output shows the actual quantity of ethanol present inside the body with accuracy.
• This detection technique detects ethanol concentration in the blood however; it is very much accurate in detecting actual amounts of alcohol.

Task 4

Compound Library (CL): Compound library can be termed as a collection of different chemicals that are specially used for the high-throughput screening along with maintenance of other essential processes for the development of drugs. The presence of comparatively large CL helps in providing great value for the discovery of different bioactive components along with different therapeutic agents (Jiang et al. 2019). Compound library stores different chemicals with their characteristics, presence of purity and respective quantity using which chemicals are used for drug discovery.
Classical pharmacology is the strategy using which different phenotypic drugs are discovered. Chemicals that are present in CL are used based on the requirement of a drug for any specific disease after testing the effectiveness of those chemicals. A range of existing chemicals in CL is screened against any specific drug for any particular disease model. According to Schneider (2018), CL uses microfluidic reactors for drug discovery after testing without extensively using any microfluidic-assisted synthesis of chemicals. Selectivity of specific drugs is essential for the evaluation of ADRs of drugs for which CL is beneficial and allows testing of different drugs with the use of chemicals. Testing quality before its permission for consumption requires analysis of design of drugs and its reconvenes with other biological components that are present inside body. CL allows the pathway for innovative drug discovery by using isomers that can react effectively during treatment.

Use of combinatorial chemistry (CC): Combinatorial chemistry can be termed as one of the advanced cost and time effective methodologies for producing effective drugs. A dynamic CC is an effective approach that helps in generating chemical libraries for different macromolecular targets (Frei et al. 2019). CC helps in the effective screening of new drugs, optimises the testing procedure using chemical lead process, and purifies the library along effective handling of samples during testing. This strategy helps in the development of large chemical components in a rapid way using a small-scale cell of reaction. The use of recently developed techniques in CC is beneficial for further testing and synthesis of new drugs.

Use of computer in designing new drugs: Computer-aided designing of new drugs is effective in the identification of lead compounds that helps in developing new drugs. Computer-based designing of drugs uses a structural determination of drugs based on legends that are promising in maintaining compounds effectively for the improvement of reactivity. Computer analysis is an effective tool for the identification of interactions of different drug molecules using which new drugs can easily be developed (Salo-Ahen et al. 2021). Measurement accuracy, as well as less work force usage, create the advantage of using CADD for the discovery of new drugs.

Reference list

Journals
Darrow, J.J., Avorn, J. and Kesselheim, A.S., 2020. FDA approval and regulation of pharmaceuticals, 1983-2018. Jama, 323(2), pp.164-176.
Foley, K.F., 2018. A positive urine alcohol with negative urine ethyl-glucuronide. Laboratory Medicine, 49(3), pp.276-279.
Frei, P., Hevey, R. and Ernst, B., 2019. Dynamic combinatorial chemistry: a new methodology comes of age. Chemistry–A European Journal, 25(1), pp.60-73.
Ghosh, C., Singh, V., Grandy, J. and Pawliszyn, J., 2020. Recent advances in breath analysis to track human health by new enrichment technologies. Journal of separation science, 43(1), pp.226-240.
Idrees, M., Mohammad, A.R., Karodia, N. and Rahman, A., 2020. Multimodal role of amino acids in microbial control and drug development. Antibiotics, 9(6), p.330.
Ito, T. and Handa, H., 2020. Molecular mechanisms of thalidomide and its derivatives. Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B, 96(6), pp.189-203.
Jiang, X., Hao, X., Jing, L., Wu, G., Kang, D., Liu, X. and Zhan, P., 2019. Recent applications of click chemistry in drug discovery. Expert opinion on drug discovery, 14(8), pp.779-789.
Klinger, R., Stuhlreyer, J., Schwartz, M., Schmitz, J. and Colloca, L., 2018. Clinical use of placebo effects in patients with pain disorders. International review of neurobiology, 139, pp.107-128.
Li, Y., Zhou, X., Li, T., Chan, S., Yu, Y., Ai, J.W., Zhang, H., Sun, F., Zhang, Q., Zhu, L. and Shao, L., 2020. Corticosteroid prevents COVID-19 progression within its therapeutic window: a multicentre, proof-of-concept, observational study. Emerging microbes & infections, 9(1), pp.1869-1877.
Lippi, G. and Plebani, M., 2020. A modern and pragmatic definition of Laboratory Medicine. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM), 58(8), pp.1171-1171.
Mitchell, M.J., Billingsley, M.M., Haley, R.M., Wechsler, M.E., Peppas, N.A. and Langer, R., 2021. Engineering precision nanoparticles for drug delivery. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 20(2), pp.101-124.
Salo-Ahen, O.M., Alanko, I., Bhadane, R., Bonvin, A.M., Honorato, R.V., Hossain, S., Juffer, A.H., Kabedev, A., Lahtela-Kakkonen, M., Larsen, A.S. and Lescrinier, E., 2021. Molecular dynamics simulations in drug discovery and pharmaceutical development. Processes, 9(1), p.71.
Schneider, G., 2018. Automating drug discovery. Nature reviews drug discovery, 17(2), pp.97-113.
van de Luitgaarden, I.A., Beulens, J.W., Schrieks, I.C., Kieneker, L.M., Touw, D.J., van Ballegooijen, A.J., van Oort, S., Grobbee, D.E. and Bakker, S.J., 2019. Urinary ethyl glucuronidecan be used as a biomarker of habitual alcohol consumption in the general population. The Journal of nutrition, 149(12), pp.2199-2205.
Yan, J. and Bassler, B.L., 2019. Surviving as a community: antibiotic tolerance and persistence in bacterial biofilms. Cell host & microbe, 26(1), pp.15-21.
Zhang, Z. and Tang, W., 2018. Drug metabolism in drug discovery and development. ActaPharmaceuticaSinica B, 8(5), pp.721-732.
Zhao, X., Chen, L. and Lu, J., 2018. A similarity-based method for prediction of drug side effects with heterogeneous information. Mathematical biosciences, 306, pp.136-144.
Websites
Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022a. Diazepam, Available at: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Diazepam [Accessed on: 288/02/2022]
Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022b. Nitrazepam, Available at: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Nitrazepam#section=3D-Conformer [Accessed on: 288/02/2022]
Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022c. Chlordiazepoxide, Available at: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Chlordiazepoxide#section=Computed-Descriptors [Accessed on: 288/02/2022]
Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022d. Amphetamine, Available at: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Amphetamine#section=3D-Conformer [Accessed on: 288/02/2022]
Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022e. DL-Adrenaline, Available at: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Adrenaline [Accessed on: 288/02/2022]
Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022f, Morphine, Available at: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Morphine#section=Names-and-Identifiers [Accessed on: 288/02/2022]
Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022g. Codeine, Available at: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Codeine [Accessed on: 288/02/2022]
Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022h. cis,trans-5'-Hydroxythalidomide, Available at: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/cis_trans-5_-Hydroxythalidomide [Accessed on: 288/02/2022]