Designer drugs: a medicinal chemistry perspective.

F Ivy Carroll, Anita H Lewin, S Wayne Mascarella, Herbert H Seltzman, P Anantha Reddy

Center for Organic and Medicinal Chemistry, Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709-2194, USA. fic@rti.org

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 2012 Feb

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There are numerous medicinal chemistry reports in the literature describing the pharmacological properties of thousands of narcotics, stimulants, hallucinogens, sedative-hypnotic drugs, cannabinoids, and other psychoactive substances as well as synthetic methods for their preparations. This information, while essential for the advancement of science, has been used by clandestine chemists to manufacture and market an endless variety of analogs of so-called designer drugs. In this review, we describe how clandestine chemists used the principles of medicinal chemistry to design molecules, referred to as designer drugs, that elicit the effects of opioids, amphetamine and analogs, cannabinoids, and phencyclidine analogs while circumventing the law. © 2012 New York Academy of Sciences.

Citation

F Ivy Carroll, Anita H Lewin, S Wayne Mascarella, Herbert H Seltzman, P Anantha Reddy. Designer drugs: a medicinal chemistry perspective. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2012 Feb;1248:18-38