Radical scavengers as ribonucleotide reductase inhibitors.

This paper compiled all the previous reports on radical scavengers, an interesting class of ribonucleotide reductase inhibitors. We have highlighted three key research areas: chemical classification of radical scavengers, structural and functional aspects of the radical site, and progress in drug designing for radical scavengers. Under the chemical classification section, we have recorded the discovery of hydroxyurea followed by discussions on hydroxamic acids, amidoximes, hydroxyguanidines, and phenolic compounds. In the next section, we have compiled the structural information for the radical site obtained from different crystallographic and theoretical studies. Finally, we have included the reported ligand based and structure based drug-designing studies.