Research Topic

Residual Complexity of Natural Products

What is Residual Complexity?

From a Chemical Perspective. Whenever natural products (NPs) are purified from natural material, they retain some of the original metabolomic complexity of their biogenetic source. This relationship is perpetuated in the form of Residual Complexity (RC), which in principle affects all NPs regardless of how “pure” they are.

There are two principal forms of Residual Complexity (RC): Static RC and Dynamic RC.

Static RC refers to the form where the type and level of impurities remain constant over time. In contrast, in cases of dynamic RC impurity levels change over time, and/or the types of impurities change (as well).

From a Biological Perspective. The assessment and definition of biological activity typically involves complex systems, which exhibit a wide array of complexity ranging from relatively well-defined (e.g., enzyme binding assay) to highly complex and relatively poorly understood (e.g., in vivo study including clinical trial) systems. The interaction of a test agent with the biological target frequently retains some of the original complexity of the biological system. This relationship generates additional layers of Residual Complexity (RC), which in principle affects all bioassay regardless of how “highly defined” they are.

How can Residual Complexity be detected and measured?
What is its potential impact on the biological activity of natural products?

Addressing these questions is subject of ongoing research in our laboratory, and available data and evidence is being compiled in a Publication Series on Residual Complexity. In short, the following can be said to answer these questions:

Where can I read more about research on Residual Complexity?

Click here for a series of publications on the broader topic of Residual Complexity (RC) of Bioactive Natural Products.

The relationship between chemical and biological RC is discussed in the following publications:

How can I obtain more information? Please feel free to send inquiries to the corresponding author.

Important Notes: The UofIL Privacy Statement and policies apply to all content of these webpages. No reponsibility is assumed for information accuracy or the information itself, including via links. See disclaimer for further stipulations. The authors, in some instance together with other copyright holders, hold a copyright ownership interest in any copyrightable information provided on this website. Files may be downloaded for personal use only. Users are not otherwise permitted to reproduce, republish, redistribute, or sell any of this information, either in whole or in part, in either machine-readable form or any other form without permission from the authors. (c) 2013 gfp@uic.edu, UIC, Chicago (IL)