Drug Analysis Narrated Powerpoint Presentation

 
You will prepare a narrated powerpoint presentation about a drug or medication of your choice and upload it to Blackboard.  You must cite at least three sources.  Pick a drug or medication of interest to you (if you need help finding a drug, a list of sources and possible options is included, but you are not limited to those suggestions) and obtain the structure of the drug (links to a few sites that provide drug structure and function information are also listed below). Once you have chosen a drug, please post your choice on the discussion board on the Blackboard site so I don’t see duplicates.  In your presentation, you will discuss the structural and chemical properties of the drug, the disease/condition it is intended to treat, and how the drug functions.  You are limited to 10-15 minutes, so you need to spend time figuring out what is most important and how to present that concisely.  A general rule is to assume you will spend one minute per slide, so shoot for 10-15 slides and adjust from there.  I will upload instructions on how to add narration to your powerpoint slides, if you don’t know.
 
Your presentation should minimally include information on the following:
 

• Chemistry of the drug
• where and when the drug was first discovered and/or synthesized
• the structure of the drug and identification of the functional group(s) present
• a discussion of the functional groups present and how they affect the drug’s chemical properties (such as polarity, solubility, hydrogen bonding, etc.) and its function
• any other chemical information you find interesting.

• Biochemistry of the drug
• basic biochemistry of the disease/condition the drug is intended to treat
• how the drug functions to treat the disease/condition
• details of the direct target (often a protein) of the drug (and/or the enzymes and/or pathways involved)
• any other biochemical information you find interesting

Drug structure and function links:

 
http://www.3dchem.com/
Chemistry and structure of medicines:  a visual and interactive website showcasing the beautiful world of chemistry
 
https://go.drugbank.com/
Also provides structures and mechanism of action of drugs, among lots of other useful info
 
https://go.drugbank.com/biotech_drugs
(same as above, different entry point)
 
http://www.biopsychiatry.com/structures/index.html
 
 

Possible drug choices (you are not limited by the lists below):

 
General: cold/allergy/asthma, painkillers (over the counter or prescription), prevention of cardiovascular and coronary events (statins etc),  ADHD, Diabetes (Avandia…), heartburn/reflux (Prevacid…),  vitamins, stimulants, illicit drugs, supplements…
 
Antibiotics (introductory list below):
Kanamycin, Penicillins (penicillin, amoxicillin, methicillin), Cepahlosporins, methicillin, Tetracycline, Chloramphenicol, macrolide antibiotics, Beta-lactams, Azithromycin, Vancomycin
 
Anti-virals:
Influenza:
Neuramindase inhibitors, Tamiflu (Oseltamivir), Zanamivir (Relenza),  Laninamivir (Inavir), Peramivir
 
HIV/AIDS: http://www.aidsmeds.com/list.shtml
Too many to list; may include the following classes of drug:
Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors, Protease Inhibitors, Entry Inhibitors, Integrase inhibitors, Multi-class combination drugs
Others:  Interferons (hepatitis), Acyclovir (herpes),
 
Cancer drugs http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/druginfo/alphalist
(kinase inhibitors, Avastin, Tarceva(erlotinib), Gleevec, tamoxifen, Herceptin, many others.  Most are cancer specific, so you can also search for drugs against a specific type of cancer.
 
 
High blood pressure medication: Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, Angiotensin II receptor blockers, Beta blockers, Calcium channel blockers, Renin inhibitors (ex:  Zestril, Cozaar, Levatol, diltiazem, Tekturna)