Abstract
This chapter describes how drug targets are identified in the modern era of drug discovery. It starts with a general description of human disease processes and then leads through a series of investigations that progressively work towards the identification of a drug target protein. In doing so, it covers the key biological disciplines required to make this happen, such as cell biology, biochemistry, molecular biology and genomics. Finally, different classes of drug targets are described, including receptors, enzymes and ion channels.
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Notes
- 1.
The glass test tubes of traditional chemistry are almost never used. The modern laboratory contains boxes of disposable plastic vessels in various configurations including flasks, plates, dishes and tubes.
- 2.
Of course at this early stage of target selection a drug is not usually available to test in the model.
- 3.
This is actually far from being the whole story, as there is much more to learn about the causes and progression of RA; there are also many more target opportunities and drugs in development or in the clinic.
- 4.
The adult human body is made up of about ten trillion cells, but ten times more bacteria live inside and on the skin, (the microbiota).
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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
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Zanders, E.D. (2011). Target Discovery. In: The Science and Business of Drug Discovery. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9902-3_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9902-3_6
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