Intended for use in an introductory pharmacology course, Basic Pharmacology: Understanding Drug Actions and Reactions provides an in-depth discussion of how to apply the chemical and molecular pharmacology concepts, a discussion students need for more advanced study. The textbook introduces the principles of chemistry and biology necessary to understand drug interactions at the cellular level. The authors highlight chemical and physical properties of drugs, drug absorption and distribution, drug interactions with cellular receptors, and drug metabolism and elimination. The book begins with a review of chemical principles as they apply to drug molecules, focusing mainly on those for commonly prescribed drugs. The authors use drug structures to illustrate the chemical concepts learned in general and organic chemistry courses. They cover the dynamics of receptors in mediating the pharmacological effects of drugs. They clarify theories, drawn from the scientific literature, which explain drug-receptor interactions and the quantitative relationship between drug binding and its effects at the cellular level. The authors’ extensive use of drug structures for teaching chemical and molecular pharmacology principles, and their emphasis on the relevance of these principles in future professional life makes this book unique. It provides the framework for better understanding of advanced pharmacology and therapeutics topics. Blending medicinal chemistry and pharmacodynamics aspects, this textbook clearly elucidates the essential concepts that form the cornerstone for further work in pharmacology.

The book is intended for chemists entering medicinal chemistry research who have no knowledge of pharmacology. Pharmacological principles and concepts are emphasized, rather than a survey of large numbers of specific drugs. It is intended to serve as a tool to prepare the reader for further in-depth study in many areas of pharmacology.

Standard medicinal chemistry courses and texts are organized by classes of drugs with an emphasis on descriptions of their biological and pharmacological effects. This book represents a new approach based on physical organic chemical principles and reaction mechanisms that allow the reader to extrapolate to many related classes of drug molecules. The Second Edition reflects the significant changes in the drug industry over the past decade, and includes chapter problems and other elements that make the book more useful for course instruction. - New edition includes new chapter problems and exercises to help students learn, plus extensive references and illustrations - Clearly presents an organic chemist's perspective of how drugs are designed and function, incorporating the extensive changes in the drug industry over the past ten years - Well-respected author has published over 200 articles, earned 21 patents, and invented a drug that is under consideration for commercialization

This book describes the latest developments in computational techniques which increase the effectiveness of the storage, retrieval, and processing of information in computerized chemical information systems. Covers the specifics of searching and clustering methods based upon the calculation of measures of similarity between chemical structures in machine-readable files. These techniques are used not only to enhance information retrieval, but also as a component of drug development programs. Chapters cover the representation of chemical structures searching files, quantitative structure-activity relationships, similarity and cluster analysis, similarity in chemical information systems, clustering in chemical information systems, and nearest neighbor searching algorithms.