Development and Use of Drugs Flashcards
New medicines
New medicines are needed because: new diseases are emerging, many disease still have no effective treatments, some antibiotic treatments are becoming less effective due to antibiotic resistance. Sources of new medicines:
- New compounds from plants, animals or microorganisms (actionbacteria).
- Examples of current medicines from nature: morphine from poppy seeds.
- It is possible that some plants/microorganisms contain compounds that could be used to treat currently incurable diseases (e.g. AIDS). Others may produce new antibiotics.
- Possible drugs sources need to be protected by protecting biodiversity and genetic diversity (habitats destroyed due to global warming/infrastructure). Species could die before we are able to study them.
- Even organisms that have been studied could prove to be used for new medicine sources as new techniques are developed for identifying and testing compounds – modifying current drugs.
- Analysing genes that may code for potential drugs.
Future of medicine:
Personalised medicine:
- Different people respond to the same drugs in different ways due to genes.
- Personalised medicine involves tailoring medicines to a person’s DNA. Genes can be sequenced and
used to predict how person will respond to drug, and tailor drugs to the DNA. - By studying relationship between genomes and drug responsiveness, more effective drugs can be
developed (better than a ‘one-size-fits-all’). - E.g. isolate gene that provides immunity, use gene to find antibody shape and manufacture
protein for vaccination.
Synthetic biology:
The development of new molecules, cells and enzymes that mimic a biological system. Synthetic biology is also used to construct new devices and systems that may be useful in research/healthcare.
- Example: engineering bacteria that can destroy cancer cells, while leaving healthy body cells. Or GM E.coli and yeast for production of artemisinin (anti/malarial drug).
