Drug discovery

Drug discovery

drugs can have many definitions
1. substance used in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of a disease or as a component of a medication
2. any biological or chemical substance (synthetic or non-synthetic)
3. anything that affects the way an organism works
  1. can be taken to enhance function
there are many key points
1. target can be a specific cell type, protein or molecule
2. are administrated to patients (individuals who have the disease)
ways of measuring
1. can measure the disease
2. can measure the effect of the drug
  1. cell death/growth
  2. changes in levels
Pharmacogenomics/Pharmacogenetics
1. impact on drug discovery and development
How do we get drugs to work?
1. target validation is key
2. proteins target have many domains/motifs which each has a different function
  1. domains can localise proteins
  2. domains can bind to other proteins
  3. domains can bind to other molecules
  4. most proteins have multiple domains
3. proteins have many functions
How drugs are discovered?
1. disease is anything that can affect the proper functioning of a body
  1. infection
  2. genetic disorder
  3. result of environmental conditions (malnourishment, poisoning, stress)
2. most of the work in our body is done by proteins
  1. contains thousands of types of proteins
  2. construction of each is determined by the DNA in the nucleus of each cell
  3. DNA contains instruction of how to build a specific protein
How drugs are developed?
1. Non-clinical drug development
2. stages in drug discovery process
3. animal testing
Problem of one vs several chemical
Drugs and plants
1. Differences and similarities of drugs and medicinal plants
2. there are many plant based medicines and drugs
3. need for consumer education about herbal supplements and drugs
different boards and committees
1. FDA
2. Institutional Review Board
drug discovery is anything but cheap
1. company mainly wants value whereas Contract Research Organisations mainly want good understanding of chemistry and competitive price
2. most drugs fail after considerable expense
  1. failure at Phase 3 could loose company 10% of share value
3. successful drug could cost between £100 million to over £1 billion from discovery phase to market
  1. increases company share value
4. money comes from customers and drives future drug discovery

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	Created by Abbey Roberts about 10 years ago