Editorial [Hot topic: Present Applications of Analytical Methods: Prospects for High Throughput Screening of Pharmaceutically Active Compounds (Part 2) (Guest Editor: Sibel A. Ozkan)]

Work in Analytical Chemistry is divided into two interrelated parts: The methodological part includes the study of physicochemical processes from the analytical point of view, construction of the related instrumentation and the development and optimization of analytical methods. The practical part adjusts these analytical methods to the necessities of the users. Analytical methods widely utilize the knowledge of all the other disciplines such as biology, pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmaceutical technology, biotechnology and many other fields. The various electroanalytical methods that permit the determination of drugs in their dosage forms, raw material, biological media etc, and also their metabolites to be separated, identified and quantitatively assayed are briefly reviewed. The sensitivity of the analytical assay has a direct impact on the validity of the pharmacokinetic model which is built up from plasma concentration data. The precision and accuracy of the assay is also important, and it is not always straightforwardly estimated. A new significant parameter is the speed of analysis, and the resulting massive production of analytical data. New drugs coming from biotechnology, and their dosage forms, like targeted drugs, may produce new analytical problems in the future. Pharmaceutical Sciences have contributed to drug development, synthesis, formulations and analysis through extensive studies in drug assays. Analytical and pharmaceutical chemists and pharmaceutical scientists play important roles in monitoring the drugs in their dosage forms and biological samples. From the viewpoints mentioned above, the title of this special issue, “Applications of Analytical Methods: Prospects for High Throughput Screening of Pharmaceutically Active Compounds”, was chosen so as to ask analytical chemists and pharmaceutical scientists to appreciate their great roles in pharmaceutical science. The second issue of this hot topic feature 4 Reviews and 7 Original Papers. Second issue mainly contains current progresses in DNA biosensors, sensors, electroanalytical methods and their applications to the pharmaceuticals and biological samples, new electrode materials such as carbon nanotubes, boron doped diamond, etc. In addition to other analytical methods, the use of electrochemical methods to gain key information about drug molecules and their mechanism of action is getting one of the important ways in drug discovery. Applications of electrochemical techniques to redox-active drug development and mechanistic studies are one of the recent interests in drug discovery. It should be noticed that many vital physiological processes are depending on redox reactions. So, it is easy to find connections between electrochemical and biological reactions regarding electron transfer pathways. Although electrochemical data do not give absolute relationship with biological activity, due to in vitro conditions it is still possible to consider that the oxidation mechanisms taking place at the electrode and in the body share related principles as a result of the existing similarities between electrochemical and biological reactions. Electrochemical DNA biosensors enable the study of the interaction of DNA immobilized on the electrode surface with analytes in solution. The investigation based on DNA interactions has great importance in understanding the mechanism of action of many drug compounds, designing of new DNA-drug biosensors, and screening of the drugs in vitro. Electrochemical investigations of nucleic acid binding molecules-DNA interactions can provide a useful complement to the spectroscopic techniques and yield information about the mechanism at intercalation and the confirmation of anti HIV-DNA adduct. Binding of drugs to DNA and a general DNA damage has been described through the variation of the electrochemical signal of guanine or adenine. The recent developments of application, evaluation and validation of electroanalytical methods are focused by key topics in drug developments and analysis by assessment of the distinguished authors of the second issue. Thus, I expect this special issue will assist readers to find out new information and to encourage them to contribute more to recent development on drug development and its analysis using different methods. The purpose of this special issue will be to serve as a guide to what analytical methods bring to analytical and medicinal chemistry and other pharmaceutical sciences as well as briefly review their role in drugs and the new developments and validation of assay methods of pharmaceutically active compounds. I hope that the reader will find a number of topics of interest, and that additional new ideas will emerge from this special issue. I would like to thank to all of the authors for their excellent contributions, and the Editor-in-Chief of Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening for his kind invitation to act as guest editor for this special issue.