Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Profound Methyl Effects in Drug Discovery and a Call for New CH Methylation Reactions


by Heike Schönherr, Tim Cernak*



The methyl group is one of the most commonly occurring carbon fragments in small-molecule drugs. This simplest alkyl fragment appears in more than 67 % of the top-selling drugs of 2011 and can modulate both the biological and physical properties of a molecule. This Review focuses on so-called magic methyl effects on binding potency, where the seemingly mundane change of C-H to C-Me improves the IC50 value of a drug candidate more than 100-fold. This discussion is followed by a survey of recent advances in synthetic chemistry that allow the direct methylation of C(sp2)-H and C(sp3)-H bonds. It is our hope that the relevance of the meager methyl group to drug discovery as presented herein will inspire reports on new C-H methylation reactions.


Thumbnail image of graphical abstract


It′s a kind of magic: The methyl group is one of the most prominent functional groups in bioactive small molecules and appears in more than 67 % of the top-selling drugs. This Review highlights examples of the magic methyl effect, whereby the installation of a single methyl group boosts potency by more than two orders of magnitude. New C-H activation reactions are required to facilitate the direct introduction of methyl groups.

Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Article first published online: 22 OCT 2013

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