Receptor-assisted combinatorial chemistry: thermodynamics and kinetics in drug discovery

Current drug discovery using combinatorial chemistry involves synthesis followed by screening, but emerging methods involve receptor-assistance to combine these steps. Adding stoichiometric amounts of receptor during library synthesis alters the kinetics or thermodynamics of the synthesis in a way that identifies the best-binding library members. Three main methods have emerged thus far in receptor-assisted combinatorial chemistry: dynamic combinatorial libraries, receptor-accelerated synthesis, and a new method, pseudo-dynamic libraries. Pseudo-dynamic libraries apply both thermodynamics and kinetics to amplify library members to easily observable levels, and attain selectivity heretofore unseen in receptor-assisted systems.     

On crystal chemistry of mercury chromates. Details of fragmentation and packing in crystal structures

In the crystal structures of the minerals edoylerite, deanesmithite, and wattersite and in the structures of the compounds HgCrO₄, Hg₃O₂CrO₄ (analog of the mineral schuetteite), and Pb₂HgO₂CrO₄, there are atomic groups or fragments linked by relatively strong (covalent) bonds. The anion fragments represented by CrO₄ tetrahedra are condensed into pairs and chains, in which adjacent tetrahedra are related by symmetry centers. The cation fragments form various patterns from zigzag ribbons of [Hg₄S₄] rings to ribbons and frameworks with [Hg₆O₂] r-octahedra, [Hg₂CrO] and [Pb₂HgO] triangles, and [Hg₆Cr₂O₄] (stella quadrangula) groups. The symmetry of the fragments and their assemblies is analyzed. Analysis of the reference crystal-forming planes has revealed cation sublattices (close to the F-cubic sublattice in two cases), determining the typical features of the structures.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by S. V. Borisov, S. A. Magarill, and N. V. PervukhinaTranslated from Zhurnal Strukturnoi Khimii, Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 471–479, May–June, 2004.