Recent Progress in Pharmaceutical Research

Pharmaceutical science is concerned with the study and design of drug formulation, disposition and delivery. It also studies the biochemical and physiological effects of drugs on human beings, and encompasses the study of toxic effects, the factors that control the concentration of drugs in different areas of the body, the cellular and molecular interactions of drugs with their receptors, etc. New candidate medications are discovered by screening of chemical libraries of synthetic molecules, natural products or extracts in organisms to identify substances that have the desired therapeutic effect. Such screening hits are optimized for increasing the affinity, efficacy, selectivity, metabolic stability and oral bioavailability. Based on the knowledge of a biological target, molecules that are complementary in charge and shape to the biomolecular target are designed. For a designed molecule to be safe and effective, properties such as bioavailability, side effects and metabolic half-life need to be optimized. Drug delivery is another important aspect of pharmaceutical research. Techniques of drug delivery modify drug release profile, distribution, absorption and elimination. This book contains some path-breaking studies in the field of pharmaceutical science. It will also provide interesting topics for research, which interested readers can take up. Scientists and students actively engaged in this field will find this book full of crucial and unexplored concepts.