How Can Deep Eutectic Systems Promote Greener Processes in Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery?

Abstract

Chemists in the medicinal chemistry field are constantly searching for alternatives towards more sustainable and eco-friendly processes for the design and synthesis of drug candidates. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most polluting industries, having a high E-factor, which is driving the adoption of more sustainable processes not only for new drug candidates, but also in the production of well-established active pharmaceutical ingredients. Deep eutectic systems (DESs) have emerged as a greener alternative to ionic liquids, and their potential to substitute traditional organic solvents in drug discovery has raised interest among scientists. With the use of DESs as alternative solvents, the processes become more attractive in terms of eco-friendliness and recyclability. Furthermore, they might be more effective through making the process simpler, faster, and with maximum efficiency. This review will be focused on the role and application of deep eutectic systems in drug discovery, using biocatalytic processes and traditional organic chemical reactions, as new environmentally benign alternative solvents. Furthermore, herein we also show that DESs, if used in the pharmaceutical industry, may have a significant effect on lowering production costs and decreasing the impact of this industry on the quality of the environment.

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“…Among them, the use of DESs is probably the most promising alternative; according to the more accurate definition of DESs, they are eutectic solvents (eutectic-type systems that are liquid at a given desired temperature where at least one of its components would, otherwise, be a solid) whose components (hydrogen bond donors (HBDs) and hydrogen bond acceptors (HBAs), Lewis or Brønsted acids and bases) present enthalpic-driven negative deviations from thermodynamic ideality [108]. DESs have been proven to be very useful not only for biopolymer processing [109][110][111][112] but also for many other uses [113][114][115][116], including the preparation of bioactive compounds trough catalytic procedures [117][118][119][120], due to their several notable advantages, including biodegradability, low toxicity, and easy, cost-effective, and solvent-free preparation from readily available natural sources [108]. In this sense, and to highlight this last aspect, the term NADESs (natural deep eutectic solvents) was coined some time ago [121,122].…”