Scientists
have developed a new way to predict potentially useful drugs from a pool of
undefined chemicals. They were able to more quickly identify leads that could
be used to treat a range of diseases, from infections, to cancer to
Alzheimer's. The finding will also help better match drugs to a disease to
maximize the benefit and reduce side-effects.
The
study, published in the journal Nature
Chemical Biology, tested how nearly 14,000 compounds, hundreds of which
were previously unexplored, affect basic cellular processes, to alert drug
makers towards chemicals that are most likely to target a particular disease.
The data pointed to ~1000 chemicals, many of which are natural products derived
from soil microbes, as a rich source of potential medicines against a many
diseases, including infections, Alzheimer's and cancer.
Despite
modern technology, drug discovery still largely rests on guesswork. To find a
drug that, say, kills cancer cells, scientists sift through libraries
containing thousands of chemical compounds, the majority of which will have no
effect at all.
Yeasts
are currently the only living organism in which scientists have a good handle
on the basic cellular processes, such as DNA replication and repair, energy
production, and transport of cargo molecules, allowing them to link a drug to a
particular bioprocess. Because natural compounds were shaped by evolution to
act on living organisms, they are better candidates for future medicines than
synthetic compounds that often do not even get into the cells.
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