Book ReViews
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2009, Vol. 52, No. 5 1491
Book ReViews Dopamine Transporters: Chemistry, Biology, and Pharmacology. Edited by Mark L. Trudell and Sari Izenwasser. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ. 2008. xii + 443 pp. 16 × 24 cm. ISBN 0470117907. $110.00. This book is divided into three sections with the first describing the biochemistry and molecular biology of the dopamine transporter. The five chapters in this section cover a wide variety of topics including anatomical localization, pathophysiology, genetics, molecular structure, and electrochemical functional characterization. These diverse topics provide a broad and generalized introduction to dopamine transporter biology. The second section of the book is more internally cohesive and is focused strictly on the medicinal chemistry of compounds that act upon the dopamine transporter. This section contains five chapters that mainly discuss the structure-activity relationships of many of the major classes of dopamine transporter inhibitors (i.e., tropanes, benztropines, GBR ligands, piperidine derivatives, and non-nitrogen-containing inhibitors). A brief chapter on dopamine releasing agents (mainly the amphetamines) is also included. The three chapters in the third section of the book are loosely grouped under the heading of dopamine transporter pharmacology. One chapter discusses brain imaging studies while another chapter focuses on the results of behavioral stimulus, selfadministration, and drug discrimination experiments. The third section of the book includes an excellent methods chapter that succinctly summarizes and reviews the in vitro experimental techniques used to study dopamine transporter function. Because of the generalized overview format of the chapters, the topics are concisely highlighted rather than exhaustively reviewed. Each chapter has enough detail to provide a basic understanding of the topic without overwhelming the reader with minutiae. The strength of this approach is that this single book is an excellent introduction to a wide breadth of dopamine transporter research, although several of the chapters focus predominantly on older references. Unfortunately, the subject index is only five pages long. A more comprehensive index would be useful for a book covering so many topics. Overall, the book is well written and the chapters are illustrated where appropriate. It is a valuable addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in dopaminergic neurotransmission. Trent J. Volz Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience UniVersity of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 JM900089N 10.1021/jm900089n
Natural Compounds as Drugs. Volumes 1 and 2. Edited by Frank Petersen and Rene´ Amstutz. Birkha¨user Verlag, Basel, Switzerland. 2008. xii + 377 pp (Volume 1) and x + 427 pp (Volume 2). 17 × 24 cm. ISBN 978-3-7643-8098-4 (Volume 1) and 978-3-7643-8594-1 (Volume 2). $259.00 (Volume 1) and $259.00 (Volume 2). Natural Compounds as Drugs is a two volume compilation of advances in natural products drug development that will
become an essential reference for any individual working in natural products research and drug development. The set is a part of a series, Progress in Drug Research, edited by Linus Herring and Alex Matter. In general the books are of very high quality in regard to paper and binding as well as consistency in style and format from chapter to chapter. There are slight differences in the presentation of chemistry between chapters, but they are not significant and do not detract from the impressive amount of useful information presented. Volume 1 begins with forwarding messages by Drs. Peterson and Amstutz, discussing the history, challenges, and opportunities for natural products research as well as contrasting traditional and western medicines. The points regarding the therapeutic significance of natural products as measured by patents and new clinical candidates, despite reductions in programs by some major pharmaceutical companies, are well taken. Chapter 1, “Mother Nature’s Gifts to Diseases of Man: The Impact of Natural Products on Anti-infective, Anticholestemics and Anticancer Drug Discovery”, provides a comprehensive review of natural-product-derived drugs for infectious disease and cancer. Chapter 2, “Drug Discovery and Development with Plant-Derived Compounds”, summarizes plant natural products with utility across all major disease targets. “Evolutionary Mechanisms Underlying Secondary Metabolite Diversity” evaluates biosynthetic mechanisms driven by evolution, leading to diversification of enzymes and the resulting natural products. “Biodiversity, Chemical Diversity and Drug Discovery” reviews topics related to genomics-guided natural products discovery leading to chemical diversity ranging from simple (aspirin) to highly complex (palytoxin). The next chapter evaluates high impact technologies for natural products screening and summarizes the techniques of greatest significance in regard to identifying and advancing hits and leads. “Virtual Screening for the Discovery of Bioactive Natural Products” provides an evaluation of computational methods for the identification of potential natural product leads. “Strain Improvement for Production of Pharmaceuticals and Other Microbial Metabolites by Fermentation” evaluates the tools available for scalable production of natural products from microorganisms. This aspect of natural products development is further detailed in the following chapters on nutritional and engineering aspects of microbial process development and natural products from plant cell cultures. In Volume 2, the first contribution continues the general theme established in Volume 1 and discusses the activation of fungal silent gene clusters as a new avenue to drug discovery. The second chapter of Volume 2 provides a detailed and comprehensive review regarding the total synthesis of macrocyclic pipecolic acid natural products: FK506, the antascomicins and rapamycin. “Application of Natural Product-Inspired Diversity-Oriented Synthesis to Drug Discovery” reviews synthetic approaches to the generation of natural product related libraries. “Chemoinformatics Analysis of Natural Products” provides a nice comparison of natural product and synthetic organic ring systems and common substituents. A review of chemical-genetic approaches for exploring mode of action and prioritizing natural products is included. A chapter on epothilones as lead structures for new anticancer drugs (their pharmacology, fermentation, and structure-activity relationships) provides an overview of the status of epothilones. “Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors from Microorganisms” describes several novel bicyclic peptides that
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are HDAC inhibitors. “Ascomycete Derivative to MS Therapeutic: S1P Receptor Modulator FTY720” is an interesting account of the development of finglolimod, a simple molecule by natural product standards and promising a highly significant impact on the control of MS. “Artemisinin, an Innovative Cornerstone for Antimalaria Therapy” provides a useful review of the challenges and history associated with efforts to control malaria and extends into a review of artemisinin and the challenges in utilizing this drug for the control of malaria. This chapter describes challenges in bulk production that are certain to be issues in the broader context of treatments of neglected diseases in addition to malaria. In summary this two-volume set provides a wealth of useful and up-to-date information of utility for drug discovery and development programs. Both volumes are well indexed and provide a glossary of acronyms. There are a number of very nice color images illustrating drug-target interactions and pharmacology. There is such a wealth of useful information
Book ReViews
presented in this set that it is challenging to adequately summarize the books in a review. This two volume set may be somewhat expensive, but it provides an outstanding group of reviews and references through 2006, yielding over 800 pages of valuable information. Much of the material is not reviewed elsewhere, making these books an indispensable addition for a science library at institutions or programs involved in drug research and development. Mark T. Hamann Department of Pharmacognosy School of Pharmacy UniVersity of Mississippi UniVersity, Mississippi 38677 JM801469D 10.1021/jm801469d
