Enzyme classes, medicinal chemists

That the battle between microbes producing 3-lacta-mases (degrading enzymes against specific classes of P-lactams) and medicinal chemists is still continuing, can... 

Some Enzyme Classes Readily Accessible to Medicinal Chemists... 

The discipline of biochemistry developed as chemists began to study the molecules of cells, tissues, and body fluids and physicians began to look for the molecular basis of various diseases. Today, the practice of medicine depends on understanding the roles and interactions of the enormous number of different chemicals enabling our bodies to function. The task is less overwhelming if one knows the properties, nomenclature and function of classes of compounds, such as carbohydrates and enzymes. The intent of this section is to review some of this information in a context relevant to medicine. Students enter medical school with different scientific backgrounds and some of the information in this section will, therefore, be familiar to many students. 

The porphyrin family of compounds are cyclic tetra-pyrolles many of which are intermediates of the heme biosynthetic pathway. The majority of the compounds of interest to the clinical chemist are not in fact porphyrins (with the exception of protoporphyrin) but porphyrinogens in which all four methylene bridges are in the reduced form. The significance of the porphyrins in medicine relates to the class of inherited disorders - the porphyrias -where there is accumulation of the precursors due to an enzyme deficiency in the heme pathway. The clinical presentation of the porphyrias varies from a chronic photosensitivity to severe acute abdominal pain as in acute intermittent porphyria, which may be precipitated by exposure to certain drugs. Characterization of the type of porphyria depends upon the identification of particular patterns of porphyrins in blood, urine, and feces. 

---