For other uses of analog, see Analog (disambiguation).

In chemistry, structural analogs (structural analogues), also known as chemical analogs or simply analogs, are compounds in which one or more atoms, functional groups, or substructures have been replaced with different atoms, groups, or substructures. Despite a high chemical similarity, structural analogs are not necessarily functional analogs and can have very different physical, chemical, biochemical, or pharmacological properties.

In drug development large series of structural analogs of an initial lead compound are created and tested as part of a structure optimization project.

[edit] See also

• Homolog, a compound of a series differing only by repeated units
• Functional analog, compounds with similar physical, chemical, biochemical, or pharmacological properties
• Transition state analog

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