Biology-Oriented Synthesis

• Published in: Angewandte Chemie (International ed.) Vol. 50; no. 46; pp. 10800 - 10826
• Main Authors: Wetzel, Stefan, Bon, Robin S., Kumar, Kamal, Waldmann, Herbert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 11.11.2011; WILEY‐VCH Verlag; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Edition: International ed. in English
• Subjects: Biological activity; Biological Products - chemical synthesis; Biological Products - chemistry; Biology; bioorganic chemistry; Chemistry, Pharmaceutical; chemoinformatics; Enzyme Inhibitors - chemical synthesis; Enzyme Inhibitors - chemistry; medicinal chemistry; natural products; Protein Structure, Tertiary; Proteins - antagonists & inhibitors; Proteins - chemistry; Small Molecule Libraries - chemistry; synthesis design
• ISSN: 1433-7851; 1521-3773
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.201007004

Which compound classes are best suited as probes and tools for chemical biology research and as inspiration for medicinal chemistry programs? Chemical space is enormously large and cannot be exploited conclusively by means of synthesis efforts. Methods are required that allow one to identify and map the biologically relevant subspaces of vast chemical space, and serve as hypothesis‐generating tools for inspiring synthesis programs. Biology‐oriented synthesis builds on structural conservatism in the evolution of proteins and natural products. It employs a hierarchical classification of bioactive compounds according to structural relationships and type of bioactivity, and selects the scaffolds of bioactive molecule classes as starting points for the synthesis of compound collections with focused diversity. Navigation in chemical space is facilitated by Scaffold Hunter, an intuitively accessible and highly interactive software. Small molecules synthesized according to BIOS are enriched in bioactivity. They facilitate the analysis of complex biological phenomena by means of acute perturbation and may serve as novel starting points to inspire drug discovery programs. From nature with love! Biological relevance is the key argument in the search for small molecules that enable the chemical‐biological analysis of biological systems or modulation of disease states. Biology‐oriented synthesis (BIOS) uses this criterion to chart and navigate vast chemical structure space and to identify biologically relevant scaffold structures as guides for the synthesis of compound libraries (see picture).