In medicinal chemistry, one often must compromise between absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) properties and affinity to a certain biological target. This is often a great challenge due to the limited chemical combinations which can yield a high affinity molecule for a target… but what if you had a protein with a very wide range of molecular structures which can bind with high affinity to it? This is precisely what fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) are like. They can bind countless hydrophobic molecules with very high affinity. Thus, as one develops a medicine for such a target, the real challenge is in optimizing a molecules drug-like properties. So if you’re confident you understand the connection between chemical structure and ADME, making an FABP inhibitor medicine is the perfect way to demonstrate it. May the best chemist win.
