[Synthesisgirl]

Hi guys,

What exactly is meant by Privileged Structures for organic compounds/drugs? I tried googling it... but I get some very weird answers

Thanks

[Vidya]

Privileged Structures for organic compounds/drugs is due to some special biological activity assigned by nature due to its specific stereo chemistry or structure. Drugs have Privileged Structures and if that structure is missing then it can be used like a drug.

[Åke]

I don't fully agree with that description, Uma. I quote: "Privileged structures are defined as molecular frameworks which are able of providing useful ligands for more than one type of receptor or enzyme target by judicious structural modifications".¹ I think that's a reasonable definition. Benzodiazepines, for example, are considered privileged structures because functionalization of the core benzodiazepine scaffold has produced drugs which are able to interact with both ion channel receptors and G-protein coupled receptors.

1: Privileged structures: a useful concept for the rational design of new lead drug candidates. Duarte CD, Barreiro EJ, Fraga CA. Mini Rev Med Chem. 2007 Nov;7(11):1108-19. http://www.benthamdirect.org/pages/content.php?MRMC/2007/00000007/00000011/0003N.SGM