The Application of Deuteration Strategy in Drug Design

Deuterated drugs, which are derived by the subtle exchange of a protium atom with a deuterium atom in drugs, exhibits significant difference in the perspective of pharmaceutical characteristics compared with the parent drugs. With the advantages including improving pharmacokinetic properties, reducing toxicity, inhibiting the interconversion between chiral drugs and restricting the interaction between drugs, deuterated drugs have attracted widespread attention from medicinal chemists. This review highlights the application of deuteration strategy in drug design and summarizes the progress of all the deuterated drugs available in the market or deuterated agents under investigation, for the purpose of providing references for all researchers engaged in this direction of drug development.