Literature Case Studies in Drug Discovery (edX)

In this course about drug discovery case studies, students will read five different Drug Annotations articles. Each article will require approximately two hours to read thoroughly and fully process. Including assessment questions based on the articles, the full course should require no more than 15 hours of effort.

Students in the course should understand lead selection, lead optimization, pharmacodynamics, drug activity, pharmacokinetics, and preclinical safety. A fundamental understanding of the structure of organic molecules and their functional groups is also required. The course has no structure beyond having a module for each case study article. A handful of 10-15-minute videos with discussions of other Drug Annotation articles are provided for reference. Each module provides a link to the open access article on the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry website.

Students signed up for the Audit Track have access to the links to the case studies and the sample Drug Annotation article videos. Students enrolled through the Verified Track also have access to assessment questions.

What you'll learn

Students will learn about several drug programs in the pharmaceutical industry…

- AZD4831 – a compound that reduces incidence of heart failure

- MRTX0902 – a compound with anti-tumor activity

- pritelivir – a compound that treats herpes simplex virus infections

- reldesemitiv -a compound that treats impaired muscle function

- sebetralstat – a compound that treats hereditary angioedema

Syllabus

case study 1: Discovery of AZD4831, a mechanism-based irreversible inhibitor of myeloperoxidase, as a potential treatment for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction

case study 2: Design and discovery of MRTX0902, a potent, selective, brain-penetrant, and orally bioavailable inhibitor of the SOS1:KRAS protein−protein interaction

case study 3: Discovery, chemistry, and preclinical development of pritelivir, a novel treatment option for acyclovir-resistant herpes simplex virus infections

case study 4: Discovery of reldesemtiv, a fast skeletal muscle troponin activator for the treatment of impaired muscle function

case study 5: Sebetralstat (KVD900): a potent and selective small molecule plasma kallikrein inhibitor featuring a novel P1 group as a potential oral on-demand treatment for hereditary angioedema