14-billion-years-later:

shychemist:

chemta:

Its been way too long since my last molecule of day and I decided to pay you guys back with this fantastic little guy here. Seriously, it looks like someone had a bunch of functional groups and said “ah screw it”, tossed them in a blender, and hit puree just see what came out.

Rifampicin was discovered when scientists were analyzing a type of bacteria that grows in soil and found this cool little compound that inhibits other bacteria from growing. The original compound wasn’t stable enough so scientists tinkered with it until they ended up with the form above. The antibiotic is effective against the bacteria that causes tuberculous and a few other diseases as well.

Its mechanism of action is pretty cool as well. As some of you may know, DNA can be transcripted into RNA which acts as a template for forming protein. Rifampicin actually blocks the RNA polymerase (the enzyme responsible for making RNA) so the bacteria can no longer make the proteins it needs to live and probably dies a slow, painful death.

Also its full name is (7S,9E,11S,12R,13S,14R,15R,16R,17S,18S,19E,21Z)-2,15,17,27,29-pentahydroxy-11-methoxy-3,7,12,14,16,18,22-heptamethyl-26-{(E)-[(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)imino]methyl}-6,23-dioxo-8,30-dioxa-24-azatetracyclo[23.3.1.14,7.05,28]triaconta-1(28),2,4,9,19,21,25(29),26-octaen-13-yl acetate. I dare any of you to draw the structure from that name.

That molecule is just a mess (far worse than other messy chained compounds like lignin). That name may just give me nightmares.

 Biochemists are strange creatures…

That’s not a name. It’s a spell.  :)