More Knowledge Means Better Drugs
(Via EurekAlert). Drugs will come to be ever more precisely designed and efficient molecules, intended to control - or reprogram - our biochemistry in very specific ways: "c-Jun is an important disease-causing gene. It stands out because we don't see much of it in normal tissue but it is highly expressed in diseased blood vessels, eyes, lungs, joints, and in the gut - in any number of areas involving inflammation and aggressive vascular growth. ... Our experimental drug, Dz13, is like a secret agent that finds its target, c-Jun, within the cell and destroys it. It is a specific, pre-programmed 'molecular assassin'. ... [this] has the potential to treat a diverse range of health problems, from inflammation and cancer through to eye and heart disease." The best drug development is still a hybrid between the old screen-and-test methods and the designs of the future - a great deal of uncertainty about the success of such a drug remains, due to our lack of knowledge of our own biochemistry.
Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-07/uons-at070306.php