Novel Targets for drug Discovery
A computer program could help predict new uses for drugs that are already on the market.
Researchers have identified thousands of new targets for existing drugs using a computer program that compares the molecular structures of drug compounds and chemicals that occur naturally in the body. The technique can be used to uncover new applications or reveal potential side effects for drugs already on the market.
"It's a new approach, and it's a totally different from what everyone else has done, " says study author Bryan Roth, a pharmacologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "That's why it actually works."
The most common methods for predicting whether a small molecule binds to various drug targets involves either high-throughput laboratory screening or virtually simulating whether a particular compound fits together with proteins like a key in a lock. The experimental approach, however, is tedious and time consuming, whereas the computational method relies on the existence of high-resolution protein structures, which are hard to come by for many drug-sensitive proteins.
Last year, Peer Bork and his colleagues at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, developed a new approach for finding novel drug targets for existing medications. They showed that drugs with similar adverse side effects often share a common target protein, even when those drugs are chemically quite different. Now, a team led by Roth and Brian Shoichet, a computational chemist at the University of California, San Francisco, have succesfully identified new uses for marketed drugs by comparing existing drug compounds with different ligands — biologically active molecules that naturally bind proteins. Their hunch was that if a drug and ligand have similar three-dimensional structures, then there's a good chance that the drug will bind to the same protein as the ligand.
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I don't know for DSM-IVby gelg
Though the info wouldn't be hard to find.
A quick google brought forth examples of what Pharma's thinking about DSM-V. Here are snippets from an article in the Journal for Clinical Studies:
"[In DSM-V] the concept of catatonia is likely to be removed from the new schizophrenia criteria, and may become a diagnostic class within psychosis, or a specifier to psychosis or mood disorders. Reclassifying catatonia outside schizophrenia could potentially open the way for novel drugs, as the optimal treatment for catatonia is likely to differ from the standard treatment for schizophrenia
Protein Phosphorylation in Parasites: Novel Targets for Antiparasitic Intervention (Drug Discovery in Infectious Diseases)
Cancer-Fighting Patch to Treat Mouth Cancer — Drug Discovery & Development
Ohio State, through the Ohio State Innovation Foundation and the university's Drug Development Institute, and the University of Michigan licensed the intellectual property to the newly formed Sirona Therapeutics.
Cell Therapeutics reports discovery of novel gene target for cancer drug development.(Cell Therapeutics Inc. presents at NCI-EORTC-AACR Symposium)(Brief Article): An article from: BIOTECH Patent News
Book (Biotech Patent News)
Gpc Biotech and Karo Bio announce drug discovery alliance for novel genomics-derived antibacterial targets.(Brief Article): An article from: BIOTECH Patent News
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In Silico Models for Drug Discovery (Methods in Molecular Biology)
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