Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery

Frontiers in Chemistry

Chemistry is a stimulating field as it links many scientific disciplines and allows for collaboration with other scientists in researching and developing new drugs. Chemists apply their chemistry training to the process of synthesizing new pharmaceuticals. They also improve the processes by which existing pharmaceuticals are made. Medicinal chemists are focused on drug discovery and development and are concerned with the isolation of medicinal agents found in plants, as well as the creation of new synthetic drug compounds. Most chemists work with a team of scientists from different disciplines, including biologists, toxicologists, pharmacologists, theoretical chemists, microbiologists, and biopharmacists. Together, this team uses sophisticated analytical techniques to synthesize and test new drug products and to develop the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly means of production. Human exposure to contemporary materials and products has increased dramatically in modern times. We are constantly confronted with manufactured materials, both at work and during leisure pursuits, indoors as well as outdoors, whilst undertaking sports activities, or in social or educational environments. It is urgent to develop new therapeutic methods, with higher efficiency and lower side effects. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are found in the innate immune system of a wide range of organisms. Identified as the most promising alternative to conventional molecules used nowadays against infections, some of them have been shown to have dual activity, both as antimicrobial and anticancer peptides (ACPs). Cereals such as wheat, rice, barley, rye, and maize have been recently identified as new sources of bioactive peptides. High quality cereal proteins are an important source of bioactive peptides, which consist of distinctive amino acid sequences, and which, once they are released, could display diverse functionalities.