What is a rational drug design?
During most of the history of medical science, new drugs have been discovered, although the process of experiments and mistakes or simply through just happiness. As the demand for new and more efficient drugs has increased, the new methods have begun to replace the new method of developing a drug called a rational design of the drug. In a rational drug design, biologically active compounds are specially designed or chosen for work with a specific aim of the drug. Rational design of drugs often includes the use of molecular design software that scientists use to create three -dimensional drug models and their biological goals. For this reason, this process is also known as a drug -supported drug design.
The aim of the drug or biological goal is usually one of the two types. The first type is the molecule in the human body that causes the disease when it is in some way defective. The second is a molecule from the microorganism causing the disease. The development of drugs involves discovering or designing new chemical compounds that interactionWith these goals in a beneficial way, for example by interacting with cholesterol to remove from the body or by interacting with the virus to cause its death.
Older methods of developing new drugs have several shortcomings that make the discovery of drugs for expensive trade. The easiest and fastest method of developing a new drug is simply to find out, through merely lucky, that a certain compound is biologically active against the aim of the drug. Perhaps the most famous such incident was the discovery of penicillin Alexander Fleming in 1928. The microbiologist discovered the first antibiotic when some of the bacterial cultures he worked were contaminated with a bactericidal fungus. Of course, this type of accidental discovery does not happen too often, and happiness is not something that drug societies rely on the development of new drugs.
The most common use of methods for developing new drugs is a lengthy, extensive process called ScreeningCombinatorial library. In this process, a large number of chemical compounds are formed and then proven for biological activity. If the compound shows signs of interaction with a biological goal, it pays further attention and can be developed into a new medicine. However, this process can take many years and a huge amount of money, and even at the end of the development period, the drug may not be sufficiently effective or safe for human use.
Rational design of the drug is a more effective process that requires careful consideration of the aim of the drug and the drug itself. This method of drug design uses special devices to explore the three -dimensional structure of the aim of the drug and then find the compound that can interact with the aim. A rational design of drugs therefore requires significant knowledge of chemistry and biology, because chemical interactions between drugs of their goals are what determines whether the drug is biologically active.
compounds can be placed for testing in two ways. The first includes the use of the Kombinato clingingRic library. In this case, however, the process is more efficient because scientists using the methods of rational drug design examine the library for shape compounds that are sufficiently specific to interaction with the aim of the drug. The second method includes a real design of a compound that can interact with the aim. This requires the consideration of the chemical composition of the compound and the knowledge of what chemical groups the compound could require to be able to interact with the aim of the drug.
The first medicine developed by the process of rational drug design was an antivirus drug called a remenza®. This drug has been designed to interact with influenza protein called neuraminidase. Without this protein, the influenza virus cannot infect new cells; Therefore, the treatment can shorten the duration of the disease. Other rationally designed drugs include HIV drugs such as Ritonavir and Indinavir, which both interact with viral proteins called proteases.