Experimental Methodologies Involved in the Discovery of Drugs

Abstract

The drug discovery process has evolved from a simpler process identifying active ingredients in traditional medications to searching complex and large chemical libraries for specific molecules with identified or predicted drug binding properties. Such progress has only been made possible due to the advancements in Pharmacological sciences including better understanding of structure activity relationships and quantification of molecular interactions. Drug discovery techniques can be broadly divided into ‘in silico’, ‘in vitro’ and ‘in vivo’ techniques. The in silico techniques have made good use of the data available from the human genome project and receptor structure data to predict and simulate molecular level binding and interactions. Hence, they help select potential candidates for preclinical studies from larger chemical libraries in shorter turnaround times than ever before. Various preclinical studies are now conducted in cell lines as miniature assays that further improve the candidate molecule selection process. Having better leads and candidates reduces the risk of failure further down in the drug discovery process saving money and time. The following chapter discusses some of these assays that are routinely used as a part of the drug discovery process.