Pharmacogenomics Flashcards
What is a drug?
a medicine or substance which has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body
What is a drug target?
a protein, cell or organ affected by a specific drug
What are two characteristics of good drugs?
potent and specific
-strong effects on specific biological target (pathway) and minimal effects on all other targets (pathways)
What are three examples of targets?
human
bacteria
virus
What are four examples of drugs?
small molecule
antibodies
vaccines
oligos
What are the steps involved in the pre-clinical part of drug development?
first step: target selection
second step: lead discovery
third step: lead expansion
–>development candidates
What are the steps in drug development?
discovery: target identification, validation and lead discovery
- > 10 to the 4 compounds
preclinical: laboratory and animal testing
-250 lead compounds
phase 1: safety and dosage
-20 to 80 healthy volunteers, 5 drug candidates
phase 2: efficacy and side effects
-100 to 300 patient volunteers
phase 3: adverse reactions
-1000-5000 patients
approval: 1 drug
post-marketing surveillance
What is the success rate of drug development?
1 in 5,000
-4% of drug development processes yield licensed drugs
What is the cost to bring a new drug to market?
> $1.5 billion
What are the reasons for drug development failure?
flawed biological hypothesis
-wrong target chosen
lack of understanding of fundamental molecular mechanisms underlying pathophysiology
lack of efficacy in clinical studies
What are the challenges of drug development?
identify all proteins/genes that can be a potential target
identify all compounds that can be used as drugs
confirmation that a compound inhibits the intended target
identification of undesirable secondary effects
What are solutions to the challenges of drug development?
rational use of drugs in clinical and community settings
identification of novel drug targets
understanding of effects of modulation of targets
-molecular mechanism, protein interactions & networks
What are the approaches to target identification?
data-mining approaches
-identification of proteins that play an important role in disease-associated pathway
genetic/genomic approaches
-identification of genes that cause disorder or increase risk of disorder
-show changes in expression levels in disease states
in vitro approaches
-identification of targets by chemogenomic screening of small-molecule tools
What is data-mining?
looking into the literature to find associations between genes and disease
What is the use of knockout, knock-in, and knock-down?
reduce expression of protein to assess involvement/toxicity
Differentiate between the two types of chemogenomic screens.
forward chemical genetics (FCG)
-start with compound library which is administered to wild type or engineered yeast cells expressing a protein of interest
-hits are selected based on phenotypic readout
-targets identified by treating genetic libraries with the identified hits
reverse chemical genetics (RCG)
-start with selection of a target of interest which is treated with a compound library in vivo
-wild type cells or genetic libraries are treated with the selected hits to identify a phenotype and/or target
What are the two main targets of drugs?
enzyme
GPCR
What is meant by drug target network?
one drug can hit multiple proteins
protein can be hit by multiple drugs
What is meant by disease gene network?
one gene can cause many different diseases
What is druggability?
ability of a protein to be modulated by a drug-like small molecule
What are the desired properties of the protein binding site for binding drugs?
binding site with complimentary properties
-appropriate size to accommodate a drug-like ligand
-buried (increase interaction surface)
What are the methods for assessing drugability?
sequence-based
-predict druggable based on sequence features
structure-based
-protein structures contain drug-like pockets
ligand-based
-high affinity drug-like compounds available
precedence-based
-protein is an established small molecule drug target
increasing confidence in druggability as you go down this list
What is key in the process of structure-based drug design?
identification and characterization of binding sites
-in some cases there may not be information about the binding site, in other cases a putative binding site has been identified by computational or experimental means but druggability is unknown
What might be considered when a site for a given target is known?
finding additional sites whose targeting could produce a desired biological response
True or false: there has been a steady increase in drug development of antimicrobial drugs
false
Why are we not seeing very many new antimicrobial drugs coming to market?
pressure on healthcare to curtail unnecessary use
most are for short courses of therapy
-chronic disease drugs are most cost effective
they are considered life saving (subject to price control)
risk of obsolescence (resistance)
How can we try encourage bringing new antimicrobials to market?
rational use of antimicrobials in community and clinic
development and use of alternative therapies for prevention of bacterial infections and evolution of resistance
new drugs
-identify targets using genome data
-drug repositioning
Pasteur Act
What is the Pasteur Act?
novel financing mechanism to revitalize antibiotic R&D
-fed gov would pay for the value the drug provides to society rather than paying for the volume prescribed
What are the key components of target identification in bacteria?
essential
selective
mutagenesis
What constitutes a good drug that targets bacteria?
injure target organism without affecting the host
How can a drug target the desired organism without affecting the host?
attacking processes that are critical to microbial well-being but dont affect mammals
-bacterial cell wall
-inhibition of enzyme unique to bacteria
-disruption of bacterial protein synthesis
-other: essential, non-human, choke point
What is the K-value paradox? C-value paradox? N-value paradox?
complexity does not correlate with:
-chromosome number (K-value paradox)
-genome size (C-value paradox)
-gene number (N-value paradox)
Which animal is the model of choice for pre-clinical drug discovery?
mice
-similar to human genome
Differentiate pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics.
pharmacogenetics:
-study of variability in drug response determined by single gene
pharmacogenomics:
-study of variability in drug response determined by multiple genes within the genome
What is the ultimate goal of pharmacogenetics/genomics?
understand how someone’s genetic make-up determines how well a medicine works in his or her body, as well as what side effects are likely to occur
=right medicine for the right patient
Why does drug response vary?
genetic differences
-SNPs
ethnicity
age
pregnancy
disease
drug interactions
What are SNPs?
single base differences in DNA sequences
-most genetic variations between individuals are due to SNPs
What is the frequency at which SNPs occur?
1 per 300-1000 base pairs
What is warfarin used for?
prevent blood clotting (DVT, PE, stroke prevention)
-interferes with production of vitamin K and other proteins required for blood clotting
-less proteins=ability to clot is reduced
Which drug causes the most emergency deparment visits?
warfarin
What is the role of CYP 2C9 in relation to warfarin?
tells the body to make an enzyme to metabolize warfarin
What occurs to warfarin when the CYP 2C9 gene is changed?
lower the ability to metabolize or clear warfarin from the body
-warfarin overdose due to build up
-people with CYP 2C9 variants need lower doses
What is the role of CYP 4F2?
reduces blood clotting by reducing the amount of vitamin K