PREFACE

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  "Molecules and Medicine" delves into the discovery, application and mode of action of more than one hundred of the most significant molecules now in use in modern medicine. It is limited to centamolecules, i.e. molecules with molecular weights in the hundreds (several hundred times more than a hydrogen atom). The important and rapidly developing area of macromolecular therapy, which involves much larger molecules (macro-molecules), such as biologically active proteins and monoclonal antibodies, is a different story, and another book.

We have tried to minimize the amount of prior knowledge required of the reader by providing much background information, both chemical and biomedical. An effort has also been made to be concise as well as clear. A large amount of material has been compressed into a small space for each therapeutic agent. Generally, each medicine is allotted just one page. One advantage of this modular arrangement is that it facilitates the reading of the book in small installments and also its use as a reference work. The therapeutic agents in this book are arranged in sections according to the type of medical condition they treat.

There are also numerous sections in the book that provide biomedical background. For instance, there are two-page to eight-page summaries of topics such as inflammation, metabolic syndrome, immunology, drug resistance, cancer and neurotransmission. These are placed at strategic locations throughout the book.