Drug Delivery Systems: A Modified Review

Abstract

A large number of potential drug target have been identified from biochemical studies of different enzyme/receptor/ channel-inhibitor systems. These data provide the basis for homology search in biological databases. Identification of homologous sequence is the primary step of drug target development. Successful utilization of such target in designing effective drug molecules will largely depend on the prediction of three dimensional structures. Experimental techniques like x-ray crystallography or NMR spectroscopy provide 3-D structural information.

The proprietory name or Brand name or trade name for particular drug is the name given to a particular composition by their respective pharmaceutical company. Each drug is also given a generic name that any pharmaceuticals company can use to identify their product.

The goal of the medical chemist to find compounds that have potent effects on given diseases with minimum side effects. Various herbs have been used which has been providing the starting point for the development of the current arsenal of drugs. Once the naturally occurring drug is isloted then it is treated as a prototype. This  prototype is the LEAD compound. Analogs of the lead compound are synthesized in order to find one that might have been lesser side effect and improved therapeutics. Changing the structure of the lead compound is  known as MOLECULAR MODIFICATION.

It is changing the structure of the lead compound in order to get a new drug that offers better therapeutic results and lesser side effect. Example is development of synthetical local anesthetic from cocaine.

Drug candidates that are natural products are usually discovered by fractionation of organism in which they occur. Thus in vitro screen are used such as the degree of binding the drug candidate to the enzyme that is implicated in the disease of interest.

In the search for a grug target for osteoporosis, a cDNA library was prepared from an osteoclastoma. Around 4% of the cDNAs encodes unknown protease which was named catepsim K which gets increased at high level in osteosclasts.