Can you recommend some books for someone who wants to learn more about drug binding and how the compound structure can change such dynamics.
Thanks.
What I know personally has been self-taught via papers that can all be found online.
I studied S. Singh's 1999 paper of cocaine analogs with very minimal knowledge, gleaning enough to make the
List Of Cocaine Analogues (Wikipedia Article) as well as the list of methylphenidates and adding a good portion of the list of phenyltropanes which was made by inspiration from the cocaine analog list, among other analog sections in articles. I learned enough for basic naming conventions and that binding relationships are not really known until there are actual
in vivo tests (even
in vitro experiments have surprising different results from binding at times, especially with certain types of receptors with which they do not work at all)
So wanting to know of differences in binding, regardless of how close the structure is, it's imperative to have actual live studies of the specific analog or exact molecule to know much; this is why reading paper after paper, and a lot of times *just wishing* there were a study, is such a major factor.
Perhaps someone like sekio has some good books to recommend, I personally don't own one of chemistry (my book collection, which I haven't had access to in years - stored at a relatives - is mostly full of rare philosophy, some are even in Italian, I have an exhaustive selection of English translations of the Italian Idealist school of metaphysics)