This book has been developed from its earlier and far less formal
presentment as the proceedings of a symposium entitled The Biochemistry
of S-Adenosylmethionine as a Basis for Drug Design that was held at the
Solstrand Fjord Hotel in Bergen, Norway on June 30-July 4, 1985. The
purpose of the symposium was to bring together scientists from various
disciplines (biochemistry, pharmacology, virology, immunology,
chemistry, medicine, and so on) to discuss the recent advances that have
been made in our understanding of the biological roles of S-
adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) and to discuss the feasibility of utilizing
AdoMet-dependent enzymes as targets for drug design. Thus the
information provided herein will be of value not only to basic
scientists involved in elucidating the role of AdoMet in biology, but
also to medicinal chemists who are using this basic knowledge in the
process of drug design. The volume should also be of interest to
pharmacologists and clinicians involved in biological evaluation of
potential therapeutic agents arising from the efforts of the biochemists
and medicinal chemists. Each plenary speaker at the symposium was
requested to submit a chapter reviewing recent contributions of their
discipline to our base of knowledge about the biological role of AdoMet.
Topics covered in this volume include protein and phospholipid
methylations (Section A), nucleic acid methyl- ations (Section B), the
regulation of AdoMet, S-adenosylhomocysteine, and methylthioadenosine
metabolism (Section C), clinical aspects of AdoMet (Section D), and the
design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of trans- methylation
inhibitors (Section E).
