Hydrogen-Bond Parameters and Lipophilicity of Hydroxamic Acids: Use in Drug Design

Hydroxamic acid provides central functionality in a number of metalloproteinase inhibitors because of its ability to strongly coordinate with metal ions and as such has high relevance for the development of new pharmaceuticals. Hydroxamic acids, the naturally occurring and synthetic products, generally have low toxicities and are of interest for many therapeutic applications. The lipophilicity of a series of hydroxamic acids have been measured experimentally between chloroform-water, octanol-water and chloroform-octanol systems, by the shake-flask method. Measured lipophilicities of compounds obtained are in the range 2.516 to 2.358. The measured Hydrogen Bond Donor (HBD) and Hydrogen Bond Acceptor (HBA) strengths are in the range 0.6239 to 0.7098 and 1.9288 to 2.8292, respectively. This study is designed to assess the correlation between the lipophilicity of the compounds and their biological activity. The results show that these molecules have better chances to arrive at receptor sites. In QSAR where physico-chemical parameters of drugs are correlated with biological activities, lipophilicity plays a major role. A knowledge of these parameters will help in designing the better drug delivery system and more accurately marked pharmaceuticals and pesticides.