Theprefixaza- is used inorganic chemistry to form names of organic compounds where acarbon atom is replaced by anitrogen atom. The related term "deaza-" refers to when a nitrogen is removed and, usually, a carbon atom is put in its place. Sometimes a number betweenhyphens is inserted before it to state which atom the nitrogen atom replaces. It arose by shortening the wordazote, which is an obsolete name for nitrogen in the English language and occurs in current French usage (azote), meaning "nitrogen".
This prefix is part of theHantzsch–Widman nomenclature.[2]
While the above figure gives examples of 4-aza steroids, 6-aza steroids have also been developed byGSK, although none of these compounds, as yet, are available for sale commercially.
