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Interdisciplinary analysis of drugs: Structural features and clinical data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2022

Daniel Austin*
Affiliation:
School of Pharmacy, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Erie, PA, USA
Kumari Biswas
Affiliation:
School of Pharmacy, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Erie, PA, USA
Kailee Pollock
Affiliation:
School of Pharmacy, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Erie, PA, USA
Linh Nguyen
Affiliation:
School of Pharmacy, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Erie, PA, USA
*
Address for correspondence: D. Austin, PharmD, School of Pharmacy, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, 1858 West Grandview Boulevard, Erie, PA 16509, USA. Email: daustin@lecom.edu
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Abstract

Background:

Chemical structure is a vital consideration early in the drug development process. Its role in analysis of safety and efficacy is relatively diminished after drugs are approved for clinical use. This interdisciplinary study explores a strategy by which readily available clinical data may be used along with structural features of drugs to identify associations with potential utility for both clinical decision-making and drug development.

Methods:

Chemical functional groups and structural groups (SGs) of 261 drugs were manually classified in tiers, and their incidence of gastrointestinal (GI) and central nervous system (CNS) adverse drug reactions (ADRs) were obtained from a clinical database. Drugs with an GI or CNS ADR incidence of at least 10% were analyzed for correlations with their functional and SGs.

Results:

Eight statistically significant associations were detected by preliminary analysis: piperazine and methylene groups were associated with higher rate of CNS ADRs; while amides, secondary alcohols, and di-substituted phenyl groups were associated with lower rates of GI or CNS ADRs or both.

Conclusions:

Although further study is necessary to understand these associations and build upon this strategy, this exploratory analysis establishes a methodology by which chemical properties of drugs may be used to aid in clinical decision-making when choosing between otherwise equivalent drug therapy options, as the presence of specific groups on drugs may be associated with increased or decreased risks of specific ADRs.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Association for Clinical and Translational Science
Figure 0

Fig. 1.Relationships between basic and clinical sciences in drug development and clinical use.

Figure 1

Fig. 2.Protocol for preliminary analysis. GI = gastrointestinal; ADRs = adverse drug reactions; CNS = central nervous system.

Figure 2

Fig. 3.Functional and structural groups of vilazodone. R = carbon substituent; Z = heteroatom.

Figure 3

Fig. 4.Most common functional groups and ADRs of the 2016 top 300 drugs. ADRs = adverse drug reactions.

Figure 4

Fig. 5.Significant associations identified in preliminary analysis (p-values). ADRs = adverse drug reactions.

Figure 5

Table 1.Associations determined by follow-up analysis