The problem of recognition in chemistry

A purposeful search for effective biologically active substances with required properties is possible only under the condition that the mechanisms of the chemical reactions taking place in biological systems are understood. The complexity of biochemical processes has forced investigators to devise models for studying and isolating various parameters of these processes. Just such an approach has yielded important results in bioorganic chemistry. One of the most crucial problems in biochemistry and biophysics is the recognition of a specific substrate by a receptor. The theory advanced by E. Fischer at the end of the nineteenth century, that enzymes interact with substrates according to a lock-and-key principle, has been transformed into a fairly rigorous conception of the recognition of molecules of different chemical compounds. The present paper is devoted to a discussion of the problems related to the improvement of the physicochemical model of recognition.Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Éksperimental'naya Khimiya, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 450–463, July–August, 1986.