Question

Enumerate at least 3 modern methods in drug discovery and development. Please cite the reference.

Answer 1

3 modern methods in drug discovery and development are -

1) Genomics - Genomics is nothing but the study of all human genes and their interactions with each other and with the environment. It is pretty evident that high‐throughput sequencing of Genomics as well as the categorization of human genes has open new doors for drug discovery. To know more and more about human genes and their functions might helps us to take necessary preventive measures and alter our approach towards drug research, discovery and development process.

2) High-Throughput Screening - High throughput screening (HTS) is another significant approach towards modern drug discovery and development where fully automated equipment are excessively use for rapid testing of thousands of samples to understand their biological activity at different levels of model organism including cellular, pathway and molecular level. This method is very crucial as parallel and combinatorial chemical synthesis give rise to a large variety of novel compounds. This methods can also be used to extract metabolic, pharmacokinetic and toxicological data about novel drugs. The biggest benefits of this method is that it can significantly reduce the total cost of drug development.

3) Combinatorial chemistry - Another modern method for drug discovery and development is combinatorial chemistry which basically include chemical synthetic methods that enables scientists to create a huge sum of compouds(even millions) in one process. This collection of different compounds are basically mixtures of compounds, individual and independent compounds, and compounds that are created through computer software. With time, Combinatorial chemistry has been excessively used for drug lead discovery and optimization. Apart from their tendency to prepare a large number odf compounds, these methods make it possible to make swift simultaneous screening against particular drug targets.

Refreneces -

G. Emilien, M. Ponchon, C. Caldas, O. Isacson, J.‐M. Maloteaux. (2000, July 01). Impact of genomics on drug discovery and clinical medicine. Retrieved from

https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article/93/7/391/1551096

Ruiwu Liu, Xiaocen Li, and Kit S. Lam. (2017, June 08). Combinatorial Chemistry in Drug Discovery.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5645069/#:~:text=Combinatorial%20chemistry%20has%20been%20used,%2C13%2C14%E2%80%A2%5D.&text=In%20addition%20to%20generating%20a,drug%20targets%20(see%20below).

Paweł Szymański, Magdalena Markowicz,^* and Elżbieta Mikiciuk-Olasik. (2011, December 29). Adaptation of High-Throughput Screening in Drug Discovery—Toxicological Screening Tests.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3269696/#:~:text=It%20is%20of%20vital%20importance,development%20%5B1%E2%80%936%5D.