Biochemistry of Halogenated Organic Compounds has been written as a
general reference source for researchers in several related areas,
including organic chemists, medicinal chemists, pharmacologists,
toxicologists, and medical researchers. The development of halogenated
compounds as medicinal agents and pharmacological tools and the
fascinating biochemi- cal processes that have been discovered and
studied using these analogues have generated extremely active areas of
research and an enormous volume of literature. Thus, halogenated organic
compounds pervade every aspect of biochemistry, a fact made apparent by
the numerous reviews and monographs available on individual
topics-halogenated nucleosides, halogenated carbohydrates, and so forth.
Given the quantity of material already written on these topics, some of
which material is quite current, it might be asked whether a one-volume
review of these subjects is useful, or possible. Having now completed
this work, I feel the answer to both questions is an emphatic yes. There
are fascinating stories to be related in each area, and, where
appropriate, I have attempted to develop these topics . from a
historical perspective. For example, the discovery of the anticancer
activity of fluorouracil, the unraveling of the several mechanisms of
its action, and the development of a host of later generations of
anticancer and antiviral agents based on the parent fluoro-, iodo-,
bromo-, and trifluoromethylpyrimidines were, and are, contributions of
major magnitude to medical science.