Combinatorial+Chemistry

Combinatorial Chemistry

Combinatorial chemistry essentially involves production of large number of products from a few building blocks. Nature has been using combinatorial chemistry from billions of years and an example of this is the vast number of molecules found in the human body. Human body contains a substantial number of proteins that have all been derived from 20 amino acids. Similarly, the immune system produces a large number of different antibodies, which act as a combinatorial library; these antibodies bind to specific antigens and foreign organisms [1].

Combinatorial chemistry uses the highly advanced concepts of organic chemistry to produce large number of structurally distinct chemical compounds simultaneously. Combinatorial organic synthesis uses specific techniques, such as solid-phase synthesis, to produce a diverse set of molecular entities from chemical building blocks. The large number of products formed are organized into combinatorial libraries.There are different types of combinatorial libraries and they are classified based on the method of molecular synthesis and screening. Different combinatorial libraries require different preparation methods, for example, small molecules are mostly prepared using synthethic approaches.

The five main combinatorial library methods are [3] :
 * 1) Biological library methods
 * 2) The spatially addressable parallel approaches
 * 3) The combinatorial library methods that require deconvolution
 * 4) The one-bead one-compound combinatorial library method
 * 5) The synthethic solution library method

All combinatorial library methods include firstly, the preparation of a library using a particular suitable method, then screening the library for biologically active compounds using assays and, finally, determination of the chemical structures of active compounds [3] .These biologically active compounds can be assessed and optimized further as a lead compound. Hence, large number of compounds can be screened for biological activity using combinatorial chemistry, which in turn, makes this field highly appealing to pharmaceutical industry.

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