Scientists Reshape Future Of Drug Discovery With Next Generation Man-Made Molecules

Scientists in Leeds have devised a new way to create the next generation of man-made molecules in a breakthrough that could revolutionize drug development. Creating new drugs to combat disease and illness requires the completion of a complex 3D jigsaw. The shape of the drug must be right to allow it to bind to a specific disease-related protein and to work effectively, and this shape is determined by the core framework of the molecule. Now a team from the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds has developed a new approach which allows the creation of molecules with an extraordinarily wide range of molecular frameworks and, hence, shapes.   The Leeds approach makes use of 'metathesis', a reaction that won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Explains Professor Nelson: "We take simple building blocks, a bit like the amino acids that make up peptides, and we assemble them in different sequences using three simple reactions to link them together in a chain. The key difference is that we then add the catalyst which initiates a 'scaffold reprogramming reaction', which ripples down the chemical chain and restitches the molecule together in a completely different way each time. "It's a bit like a molecular square dance, where atoms in the molecule swap partners - and the exciting thing is that we can change the building blocks again and again in different combinations as a really powerful way to vary the core frameworks that result. The potential of this process is enormous," he says.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081119084239.htm