title: Characteristics of known drug space. Natural products, their derivatives and synthetic drugs.
abstract: Known drug space (KDS) was analysed for the occurrence of natural products and their derivatives. A database of 1000 marketed drugs was compiled. It was found that 10% of the drugs on the market are unaltered natural products, 29% are their derivatives (semi-synthetics) and the rest (61%) have a synthetic origin. Of the natural products, and their derivatives, polycyclic drugs were the most abundant at 21% followed by simple drugs (16%) and steroids (15%). In regard to the molecular descriptors the natural products had larger statistical means and standard deviations than their synthetic counterparts. It was found that KDS occupies a larger volume in chemical space with respect to drug-like chemicals, i.e., KDS fully encompasses drug-like chemical space with the parameters of molecular weight≤800 g mol(-1), log P≤6.5, hydrogen bond acceptors≤15, hydrogen bond donors≤7, polar surface area≤180 Å2, and rotatable bonds≤17. Only 13% of the drugs analysed are outside one or more of these parameters. The definition of KDS gives drug designers a larger volume to work in compared to drug-like chemical space. However, the bulk of known drugs are found within the volume of drug-like chemical space.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Auckland Bioengineering Institute, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bade
authors.forename: Ho-Fung
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Jóhannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reynisson
mesh_terms: D001685:Biological Factors / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D015394:Molecular Structure; D008970:Molecular Weight; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001685:Biological Factors; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations