Can they all be used to treat the same things?
Can new medicines be made by making one more like the other?
There are many medicines and useful chemicals based on purine.
suggested reading
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
entecavir, aciclovir, and cladribine comparison
The first two are antivirals and the third one is a leukemia medication. I have my usual questions:
proguanil and metformin compared
Proguanil is used to treat malaria, and metformin is a diabetes medication.
It's interesting how they both have almost the same nitrogen chain. I'm wondering if making one more like the other could lead to a new medicine. Can proguanil be used to treat diabetes? Can metformin be used to treat malaria?
It seems easier and safer to try to make new medicines from existing ones rather than starting from scratch. Once penicillin was isolated, the race was on to find new antibiotics from mold.
allopurinol and mercaptopurine comparison
Allopurinol is a gout and kidney stone medicine and mercaptopurine is used to treat leukemia.
Allopurinol has a double-bonded oxygen vs a double-bonded sulfur in mercaptopurine. Allopurinol also lacks a nitrogen-carbon double bond in its smaller ring. Basically, mercaptopurine has two nitrogen-hydrogen bonds on its smaller ring while allopurinol has one nitrogen-hydrogen bond on its larger ring and one on its smaller wing. Also, there is a carbon atom between the two nitrogen atoms in the smaller ring of allopurinol. My questions are:
Allopurinol has a double-bonded oxygen vs a double-bonded sulfur in mercaptopurine. Allopurinol also lacks a nitrogen-carbon double bond in its smaller ring. Basically, mercaptopurine has two nitrogen-hydrogen bonds on its smaller ring while allopurinol has one nitrogen-hydrogen bond on its larger ring and one on its smaller wing. Also, there is a carbon atom between the two nitrogen atoms in the smaller ring of allopurinol. My questions are:
Could substituting sulfur for oxygen on allopurinol create a new leukemia medicine?
What would be the effects changing the double bonds on mercaptopurine to be the same as allopurinol?
tioguanine and mercaptopurine comparison - purine analogs and leukemia treatment
The difference is that tioguanine replaces a hydrogen with an amine group. What would be the effect of replacing the hydrogen on the smaller ring of mercaptopurine with an amine group? Or a methyl group?
Answering those questions could lead to a new leukemia medicine.
Rotating molecules so that the main features point in the same direction can offer insights. It's easier to do that with ball and stick models.
I wonder about the effects of replacing the double-bonded oxygens with sulfur in the above molecules.
Monday, March 23, 2026
the future of Africa & population decline
Africa depends on food aid and food, pesticide, and fertilizer imports. At the same time, the countries that supply those things are experiencing population decline while the population of most African countries is projected to expand greatly during this century.
A similar mismatch is true for fuel and farm machinery; Africa needs it but does not produce it. At the same time, most African farmland is devoted to cash crops rather than domestic consumption.
A similar mismatch is true for fuel and farm machinery; Africa needs it but does not produce it. At the same time, most African farmland is devoted to cash crops rather than domestic consumption.
At some point in the not-too-distant future, declining populations in North America, Europe, and East Asia will decrease essential exports and aid to Africa, with the latter facing famine and economic chaos.
Free markets, trade, and industrialization are the only way to prevent disaster. More aid will not help.
There is a big used clothing market in Moshi, near where I used to live in Tanzania. The foreigners who donate clothes mean well, but by flooding the market with cheap clothing, they make it very hard for a domestic textile industry survive. Food aid, while necessary at times, tends to bankrupt struggling farmers, which makes famines even more likely.
Most African countries are reluctant to let foreign mining companies do business out of fear of exploitation, but the continent's untapped mineral wealth is one of the few ways they can pay for what they will need.
It's important to remember that a lot can change in a few decades. South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world in 1960. 30 years later, it became a major exporter and one of the biggest industrialized economies in Asia.
Sunday, March 22, 2026
Thursday, March 19, 2026
proof that lowering cholesterol does not lower the risk of heart disease
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Available evidence from randomized controlled trials shows that replacement of saturated fat in the diet with linoleic acid effectively lowers serum cholesterol but does not support the hypothesis that this translates to a lower risk of death from coronary heart disease or all causes. Findings from the Minnesota Coronary Experiment add to growing evidence that incomplete publication has contributed to overestimation of the benefits of replacing saturated fat with vegetable oils rich in linoleic acid.
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They fail to mention that were MORE deaths among those whose cholesterol was lowered. There are no health benefits from increased seed oil consumption.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/lowering-cholesterol-killed-a-study-buried-for-40-years/ar-AA1X3qeS
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What differentiates the Tukisenta, Maasai, and Tokelauans from modern Western populations is their lack of processed foods, refined sugars, and seed oils
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Blue zone diets are free of such things too.
It seems the main things to avoid are tobacco, alcohol, sugar, and seed oils. All of those things are multibillion-dollar industries. I should add that medicine is also a multibillion-dollar industry (worth about $24 billion per year)
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