After studying this Unit you will be

able to

• visualise the importance of

Chemistry in daily life;

• explain the term ‘chemotherapy’;

• describe the basis of classification

of drugs;

• explain drug-target interaction of

enzymes and receptors;

• explain how various types of

drugs function in the body;

• know about artificial sweetening

agents and food preservatives;

• discuss the chemistry of cleansing

agents.

Objectives

From living perception to abstract thought, and from this to practice.

V.I. Lenin.

Unit

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By now, you have learnt the basic principles of

chemistry and also realised that it influences every

sphere of human life. The principles of chemistry have

been used for the benefit of mankind. Think of

cleanliness — the materials like soaps, detergents,

household bleaches, tooth pastes, etc. will come to your

mind. Look towards the beautiful clothes — immediately

chemicals of the synthetic fibres used for making clothes

and chemicals giving colours to them will come to your

mind. Food materials — again a number of chemicals

about which you have learnt in the previous Unit will

appear in your mind. Of course, sickness and diseases

remind us of medicines — again chemicals. Explosives,

fuels, rocket propellents, building and electronic

materials, etc., are all chemicals. Chemistry has

influenced our life so much that we do not even realise

that we come across chemicals at every moment; that

we ourselves are beautiful chemical creations and all

our activities are controlled by chemicals. In this Unit,

we shall learn the application of Chemistry in three

important and interesting areas, namely – medicines,

food materials and cleansing agents.

Drugs are chemicals of low molecular masses (~100 – 500u). These

interact with macromolecular targets and produce a biological response.

When the biological response is therapeutic and useful, these chemicals

are called medicines and are used in diagnosis, prevention and

treatment of diseases. Most of the drugs used as medicines are potential

poisons, if taken in doses higher than those recommended. Use of

chemicals for therapeutic effect is called chemotherapy.

16.116.1

16.1

Drugs andDrugs and

Drugs and

their

theirtheir

their

ClassificationClassification

Classification

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448Chemistry

Drugs can be classified mainly on criteria outlined as follows:

(a) On the basis of pharmacological effect

This classification is based on pharmacological effect of the drugs. It

is useful for doctors because it provides them the whole range of

drugs available for the treatment of a particular type of problem. For

example, analgesics have pain killing effect, antiseptics kill or arrest

the growth of microorganisms.

(b) On the basis of drug action

It is based on the action of a drug on a particular biochemical process.

For example, all antihistamines inhibit the action of the compound,

histamine which causes inflammation in the body. There are various

ways in which action of histamines can be blocked. You will learn

about this in Section 16.3.2.

It is based on the chemical structure of the drug. Drugs classified in this

way share common structural features and often have similar

pharmacological activity. For example, sulphonamides have common

structural feature, given below.

Structural features of sulphonamides

(d) On the basis of molecular targets

Drugs usually interact with biomolecules such as carbohydrates, lipids,

proteins and nucleic acids. These are called target molecules or drug

targets. Drugs possessing some common structural features may have

the same mechanism of action on targets. The classification based on

molecular targets is the most useful classification for medicinal chemists.

Macromolecules of biological origin perform various functions in the

body. For example, proteins which perform the role of biological catalysts

in the body are called enzymes, those which are crucial to

communication system in the body are called receptors. Carrier proteins

carry polar molecules across the cell membrane. Nucleic acids have

coded genetic information for the cell. Lipids and carbohydrates are

structural parts of the cell membrane. We shall explain the drug-target

interaction with the examples of enzymes and receptors.

(a) Catalytic action of enzymes

For understanding the interaction between a drug and an enzyme,

it is important to know how do enzymes catalyse the reaction

(Section 5.2.4). In their catalytic activity, enzymes perform two

major functions:

(i) The first function of an enzyme is to hold the substrate for a chemical

reaction. Active sites of enzymes hold the substrate molecule in a

suitable position, so that it can be attacked by the reagent effectively.

16.1.1

Classification of

Drugs

16.216.2

16.2

Drug-TargetDrug-Target

Drug-Target

InteractionInteraction

Interaction

16.2.1 Enzymes

as Drug

Targets

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449 Chemistry in Everyday Life

Fig. 16.2

Drug and substrate

competing for active

site

(ii) The second function of an enzyme is to provide functional groups

that will attack the substrate and carry out chemical reaction.

(b) Drug-enzyme interaction

Drugs inhibit any of the above mentioned activities of enzymes. These

can block the binding site of the enzyme and prevent the binding of

substrate, or can inhibit the catalytic activity of the enzyme. Such

drugs are called enzyme inhibitors.

Drugs inhibit the attachment of substrate on active site of enzymes

in two different ways;

(i) Drugs compete with the natural substrate for their attachment

on the active sites of enzymes. Such drugs are called competitive

inhibitors (Fig. 16.2).

Fig. 16.1

(a) Active site of an

enzyme (b) Substrate

active site of the

enzyme

(ii) Some drugs do not bind to the

enzyme’s active site. These bind

to a different site of enzyme

which is called allosteric site.

This binding of inhibitor at

allosteric site (Fig.16.3) changes

the shape of the active site in

such a way that substrate can-

not recognise it.

If the bond formed between

an enzyme and an inhibitor is

a strong covalent bond and

Substrates bind to the active site of the enzyme through a variety

of interactions such as ionic bonding, hydrogen bonding, van der

Waals interaction or dipole-dipole interaction (Fig. 16.1).

Fig. 16.3: Non-competitive inhibitor changes the active

site of enzyme after binding at allosteric site.

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450Chemistry

cannot be broken easily, then the enzyme is blocked permanently.

The body then degrades the enzyme-inhibitor complex and

synthesises the new enzyme.

Receptors are proteins that are crucial to body’s communication

process. Majority of these are embedded in cell membranes (Fig.

16.4). Receptor proteins are embedded in the cell membrane in such

a way that their small part possessing active site projects out of the

surface of the membrane and opens on the outside region of the cell

membrane (Fig. 16.4).

16.2.2 Receptors

as Drug

Targets

Fig. 16.4

Receptor protein

embedded in the cell

membrane, the

active site of the

receptor opens on

the outside region of

the cell.

Fig. 16.5: (a) Receptor receiving chemical messenger

(b) Shape of the receptor changed after attachment of messenger

There are a large number of different receptors in the body that

interact with different chemical messengers. These receptors show

selectivity for one chemical messenger over the other because their binding

sites have different shape, structure and amino acid composition.

In the body, message between two neurons and that between neurons

to muscles is communicated through certain chemicals. These chemicals,

known as chemical messengers are received at the binding sites of receptor

proteins. To accommodate a messenger, shape of the receptor site changes.

This brings about the transfer of message into the cell. Thus, chemical

messenger gives message to the cell without entering the cell (Fig. 16.5).

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451 Chemistry in Everyday Life

Drugs that bind to the receptor site and inhibit its natural function

are called antagonists. These are useful when blocking of message is

required. There are other types of drugs that mimic the natural

messenger by switching on the receptor, these are called agonists.

These are useful when there is lack of natural chemical messenger.

In this Section, we shall discuss the therapeutic action

of a few important classes of drugs.

Over production of acid in the stomach causes irritation and pain. In

severe cases, ulcers are developed in the stomach. Until 1970, only

treatment for acidity was administration of antacids, such as sodium

hydrogencarbonate or a mixture of aluminium and magnesium

hydroxide. However, excessive hydrogencarbonate can make the stomach

alkaline and trigger the production of even more acid. Metal hydroxides

are better alternatives because of being insoluble, these do not increase

the pH above neutrality. These treatments control only symptoms, and

not the cause. Therefore, with these metal salts, the patients cannot be

treated easily. In advanced stages, ulcers become life threatening and its

only treatment is removal of the affected part of the stomach.

A major breakthrough in the treatment of hyperacidity came through

the discovery according to which a chemical, histamine, stimulates the

secretion of pepsin and hydrochloric acid in the stomach. The drug

cimetidine (Tegamet), was designed to prevent the interaction of

histamine with the receptors present in the stomach wall. This resulted

in release of lesser amount of acid. The importance of the drug was

so much that it remained the largest selling drug in the world until

another drug, ranitidine (Zantac), was discovered.

16.316.3

16.3

Therapeutic Action ofTherapeutic Action of

Therapeutic Action of

Different Classes of DrugsDifferent Classes of Drugs

Different Classes of Drugs

16.3.1 Antacids

Histamine is a potent vasodilator. It has various functions. It contracts

the smooth muscles in the bronchi and gut and relaxes other muscles,

such as those in the walls of fine blood vessels. Histamine is also

responsible for the nasal congestion associated with common cold and

allergic response to pollen.

Synthetic drugs, brompheniramine (Dimetapp) and terfenadine

(Seldane), act as antihistamines. They interfere with the natural action

16.3.2

Antihistamines

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