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Published online 1 November 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.1047
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New targets for old drugs
A computer program predicts thousands of previously unknown drug-target associations.
Researchers have identified thousands of new targets for existing drugs using a computer program that compares the molecular structures of drug compounds and chemicals that occur naturally in the body. The technique can be used to uncover new applications or reveal potential side effects for drugs already on the market.
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And the next step is up upload a database of phytochemicals and query them against our drugs and biomolecules. We may be able to grow more medicine without having to synthesize it, and we might find diverse naturally-ocurring versions (perhaps being isomers or having novel substituted groups, etc.) of many "artificial" drugs or known human biomolecules.
Excellent work. Thank you for sharing this with us. Lends itself to more study for unanticipated interactions.
Even in Wikipedia you can read that dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is an agonist at the 5-HT2A receptor, which is the drug target of LSD. This is a nice confirmation, but not the "discovery" of the DMT target.
Plenty of potential new targets may be pointed out by this "in silico HTS approach". However, without addedd "in cerebro" pathology/pharmacology knowledge it remains only a reductionist approach. Joking apart, it is one good idea
Károly Tihanyi,
Budapest, Hungary
Great work in this growing scientific world and thanks for providing us these excellent discovery news.