211
defining each term at its first use, the following text often
uses so many acronyms that one has to keep going back
to try to find the original definition. It would have been
useful to have had a section listing the acronyms used to
make it easier to find these terms.
Overall the text is very well written, current, and covers
a very wide range of topics dealing with chromosomes.
James Zimmerman
Department of Genetics, Biochemistry,
and Life Science Studies
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634-0324
Fundamentals of Medicinal Chemistry
Thomas, G., John Wiley & Sons Ltd., London, United King-
dom, 2003, 285 pp., ISBN 0-470-843071, $30.00.
Medicinal chemistry is concerned with the design and
discovery of compounds that can be used as drugs in
treatment or management of one or more components of
the great variety of diseases and pathological abnormali-
ties that afflict humankind. Although, as the title indicates,
it relies heavily on creative, effective, and economical syn-
thetic chemistry, it also involves finding solutions to nu-
merous practical problems that are an integral part of the
road from the early thoughts about lead substances all the
way to their evolution into new drugs that can return a
profit on the enormous financial investment that this in-
volves. There are not only biochemical, molecular biolog-
ical, pharmaceutical, pharmacological, pathological, and
clinical considerations to be taken into account, but also
sophisticated computing to determine the structure-activ-
ity relationships, methods of high-throughput screening of
a multitude of potentially suitable compounds, and math-
ematical, legal, and economic considerations. This book
clearly reflects the many aspects that are involved.
The author is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Medic-
inal and Environmental Chemistry in the School of Phar-
macy and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Ports-
mouth, United Kingdom. He is the recent author of two
other books, one on the same subject as the present book,
the other on chemistry for pharmacy and the life sciences.
His target readership includes undergraduates in phar-
macy, medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry, pharma-
cology, and related degrees. I think that those in their more
senior years will get benefit from this book much more
easily than less advanced students.
The bulk of the book is constituted by eight chapters
that start with structure-activity relationships (SAR) and
quantitative SAR and computer-aided approaches to drug
design, proceed into combinatorial chemistry, examples of
drug action at common target sites, pharmacokinetics,
and drug metabolism, and end with lead and analogue
syntheses, and drug development and production. These
clearly show the author’s deep knowledge of and insight
into the subject even if the style is often repetitive, numer-
ous eponymous chemical terms are introduced that are
unlikely to be familiar to most of the intended readership,
and no specific references are provided except in legends
to tables and figures that are reproduced from other
works. These core chapters are flanked by two introduc-
tory ones that review the structures and nomenclature of
biomolecules and give an overview of medicinal chemistry,
and by a series of appendices that attempt to provide
some biological background. I found the review of biomol-
ecules to be too inclusive and some of the appendices to
be rather superficial and hastily written so that some parts
are far from optimal. Each chapter ends with a series of
questions to which answers are provided at the end of the
text. A list of books for selected further reading is also
provided.
I found numerous misprints that suggest that prepubli-
cation proofreading was far from adequate. These start in
the list of abbreviations where about 10% of entries are
faulty in some way. These and the rather repetitive style of
writing in most chapters are tedious to say the least. They
could easily have been prevented so as not to detract from
the obvious author’s expertise in the subject matter and
from the book’s inherent interest.
Frank Vella
18 Leydon Crescent, Saskatoon
Saskatechwan S7J 2S4, Canada
Principles of Exercise Biochemistry (3rd Ed.)
Poortmans, J. R., ed., Karger, Basel, Switzerland, 2004,
306 pp., ISBN 3-8055-7607-2, $169.75.
Students have great enthusiasm for understanding the
biochemistry and physiology of exercise and can cope
with a great deal of arcane detail when the material seems
to be relevant to them. This book would therefore be of
interest, although it is perhaps more at the research than
the undergraduate level, and it is certainly not priced for
the undergraduate pocket. It is part of a series: Medicine
and Sport Science, with chapters by different authors, and
is No. 46 in this series.
Any biochemist will surely be refreshed and challenged
to read the first chapter entitled “Enzymes, Energy and
Endurance” by Eric Newsholme (famously described as
“Biochemist and athlete” in an Open University film of
many years ago). This first chapter covers a great range
and points out that most in vitro biochemistry with en-
zymes is done with very dilute enzyme solutions, the find-
ings from which may have rather little to do with the in vivo
situation (and this applies to control theories too). News-
holm goes into “equilibrium” and “nonequilibrium” reac-
tions, pointing out that if we were at equilibrium we would
be dead. We are not because biochemical systems are
open: energy and matter are exchanged with the environ-
ment. For those of us who try to teach biochemical reac-
tions and pathways in the light of thermodynamics, this
chapter provides an illuminating way in which to do it. The
author also goes into the reactions and substrates of the
“right-hand” and “left-hand” parts of the Krebs Cycle (I am

212
assuming that this proceeds clockwise as it does in nearly
but not completely all printed diagrams!). The idea is in-
troduced of novel fuels for exercise, which bypass any
limitation by oxaloacetate concentration, and which in-
volve feeding in glutamine and proline. These fuels could
be important for some human muscles under some con-
ditions and raises the question of whether some endur-
ance athletes have some energy characteristics similar to
those of some insects!
The second chapter deals with skeletal muscle fibers
and the distribution of the fiber types in athletes (as well as
in aging). (It is interesting to compare the reference list for
this chapter (227 cited) with that for Newsholme’s chapter
(12).) This theme is continued in Chapter 3, which consid-
ers molecular aspects of muscular contraction and then
goes on to look at energetics and power output. This
theme is picked up in the fourth chapter, which will be very
valuable to biochemists teaching metabolism: it deals with
high-energy phosphates and muscle energetics. The
whole body ATP turnover in the 100-m race is calculated
as just over 3 mol/min compared with about 1 mol/min in
the marathon.
The following four chapters are devoted to metabolism
of carbohydrate, lactate, lipids, and protein during exer-
cise. The pathways by which these compounds are broken
down to fuel physical activity are described, as well as the
pros and cons of using the various substrates to fuel
exercise. Regulation of these processes is also described,
as well as metabolism is affected by training. On these
subjects, there is some overlap and repetition between the
chapters.
Readers of the book, who themselves are keen exercis-
ers, will find the section on glycogen depletion informative.
It will tell them how long glycogen stores last during exer-
cises of varying intensity and the extent to which carbo-
hydrate loading is important to improve performance.
There is a section on utilization of carbohydrates taken
prior to or during exercise, as well as the latest findings on
how to restore carbohydrate levels after exercise. This
information is much debated both in scientific and lay
magazines devoted to fitness, and the reader will find it
useful to understand what the latest scientific position is
on these subjects.
The chapter on protein metabolism includes information
on protein requirements for athletes and attempts to lay
out the facts of this confusing area, especially as many
physical trainers will advocate the use of high-protein diets
to fuel muscle growth during periods of intense bodybuild-
15393429, 2004, 3, Downloaded from https://iubmb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bmb.2004.494032039996 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [17/11/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
BAMBED, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 210 –212, 2004
ing. Thus, the chapter includes information on a practical
level of protein intake for exercisers, with recommenda-
tions for vegetarians on how to get a full complement of
amino acids, as well as a brief description of the dangers
associated with a high-protein diet. The influence of ge-
netics on exercise ability is largely ignored in the book,
although there is a brief mention and reference to the
HERITAGE Family study that is trying to identify key genes
encoding enzymes of pathways related to substrate stor-
age and utilization.
The final chapter is given entirely to the mechanisms of
muscle fatigue, an intriguing subject about which little is
known. Much research is currently focused in this area
because a better understanding will enable us to exercise
harder and for longer thus improving athletic abilities. Al-
though some aspects of muscle fatigue are covered earlier
throughout different chapters of the book, it is neverthe-
less useful to have a discussion of the considerable pro-
gress that has been made in this field. This chapter reviews
muscle fatigue resulting from two general types of activity:
short duration, high intensity, and endurance training. Im-
portant current theories and supportive experimental re-
sults are presented, and review references are given for
the reader to investigate the topic more fully. It would also
have been useful if the author had included some sugges-
tions on how to improve or mitigate muscle fatigue. This
would attract students who are both interested to know
the etiology of muscle fatigue, amply outlined in this chap-
ter, but who also want to improve their own performance
by utilizing the latest findings in this large field of research.
Overall, the book is informative, with nearly all chapters
having a long list of references; many have over 200 cita-
tions. This is an area where much research is going on with
many findings being hotly debated, partly because good
experiments are hard to do. Summarizing the body of work
in this field can be a daunting task, especially into a book
of 306 pages. The text is aimed at students of biochem-
istry who are studying or are interested in learning more
about the biochemistry of exercise physiology, but it would
be a difficult read for many of the physical trainers or
others interested in sports with little or no scientific back-
ground. Such individuals have to rely on what can be
misleading or old information in the magazines published
by the popular press.
Helen Knaggs
Park Avenue
Weehawken, NJ 07086