week 3: the art of drug development

Question 1

what is a drug?

Answer 1

a medicine or other substance (other than food) which has a physiological effect when introduced into the body

Question 2

what is a medicine/pharmaceutical drug used for?

Answer 2

used to treat, cure, prevent, diagnose a disease, or to promote well-being

Question 3

traditionally, how were drugs obtained? how are they obtained nowadays?

Answer 3

traditionally - extracted from medicinal plants
nowadays - produced by organic synthesis (of compounds found in medicinal plants)

Question 4

what are medicinal plants?

Answer 4

medicinal herbs used since prehistoric times including:
- antimicrobial herbs (ex: rosemary)
- medicinal plants (ex: aloe vera)
- anti-inflammatory herbs (ex: ginger)

Question 5

what are the main routes of drug administration? SOS

Answer 5

• intravenous
• intramuscular
• subcutaneous
• topical
• inhalation
• oral
• rectal
• sublingual
• intrathecal
• transdermal

Question 6

what is the FASTEST route of administration?

Answer 6

IV (intravenous)

Question 7

what is the most common route of administration?

Answer 7

oral

Question 8

describe the discovery and development process of a new drug to become a marketable product

Answer 8

• complex
• costly
• time consuming

Question 9

how is organic synthesis of new drugs challenged? the molecule has to be:

Answer 9

• novel (researchers need to come up with it)
• biologically active
• safe
• suitably targeted molecules

Question 10

what are the steps of the drug discovery process?

Answer 10

1. target selection
2. lead discovery
3. medicinal chemistry (chemical synthesis)
4. in vitro studies (cells)
5. in vivo studies (animals)
6. clinical trials

Question 11

what are the considerations in the drug discovery process? (ADMET)

Answer 11

absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, toxicity

• drug must be able to be absorbed into the body (A)
• drug must be distributed to the right target (D)
• we must now how the drug is metabolized
• we must know how the drug gets excreted
• we must understand the toxicities of the drugs

Question 12

what are the different ways drugs are synthesized?

Answer 12

• conversion of smaller molecules into bigger ones
• synthesis of “synthetic” products from natural products (ex: plant extracts)
• modification of existing structures

Question 13

what occurs during the first stage of drug discovery (target selection)?

Answer 13

• researchers perform basic research, study a specific disease at a cellular and molecular level
  ex: breast cancer
• have a better understanding of disease, identify targets for new treatments (ex: a faulty gene/protein)
• target is identified, researchers try to synthesize a drug to target this faulty gene