The New Age of Drug Designing

Drug design is the term which refers to the ingenious process of finding new drug to help the field of medicine. This drug is usually an organic molecule, which attaches itself to a biomolecule. It can either obstruct or initiate the biomolecule, resulting in therapeutic benefit to the patient.

The drug design of the 21^st century is using the computer as helping in making the drug. The essential goal of Computer Aided Drug Design is to predict whether a particular molecule will bind itself to the host (and start the process) and if yes, then how strong will be the bond.

In the field of drug design, molecular dynamics (MD) is used to study various macromolecules as well as macro-molecule small molecule interactions. This technique provides dynamic information of macromolecular processes. Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships (QSAR) establishes a mathematical correlation between the chemical structures of a set of compounds as well as biological activities.

Bentham Science Journal “Current Computer-Aided Drug Design” aims to publish all the latest developments in drug design based on computational techniques. The field of computer-aided drug design has had extensive impact in the area of drug design. Current Computer-Aided Drug Design is an essential journal for all medicinal chemists who wish to be kept informed and up-to-date with all the latest and important developments in computer-aided methodologies and their applications in drug discovery. This journal has an impact factor of 1.54 and is indexed in agencies like MEDLINE, Pub Med, EMBASE and SCOPUS.

10) A Possible Cure for Sickle Cell Disease

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) or Sickle Cell Anemia (SCA) is a hereditary blood disorder, in which the red blood cells transform into a ‘sickle’ shape. It disrupts the natural circulation of blood. This mutation of the red blood cells can be extremely dangerous for the patients. Not only it can make the patient anemic, it can also reduce the life expectancy. SCD is hereditary. In simpler words, the cell change their shape from ‘disc like’ to ‘sickle’ shape when the DNA of a new born baby send signal to transform the hemoglobin (the Oxygen carrying component of the red blood cells) from ‘fetal’ to ‘adult’.

Recent studies in the discipline of Hematology (the study of blood), have proved that the chances of an individual getting SCD can be reduced. According to the research, the researchers used a specialized tool, a genetically engineered zinc finger (ZF) protein, which they custom-designed to latch onto a specific DNA site carrying the code for fetal hemoglobin. They attached the ZF to another protein that forced a chromatin loop to form. The loop then activated gene expression that produced embryonic hemoglobin in blood-forming cells from adult mice.

The researchers had the same result when they experimented on human blood. Now the team of researchers will continue investigations aimed at moving their research toward clinical application.

Bentham Science Publishers is one of the leading STM publishers in the industry. It has more than 116 online and print journals, 150 plus Open Access journals, and related print/online book series. One of the numerous eBooks is, Immunology of Pregnancy 2013, which is a complete compendium of gynecological immunology, spanning from fecundation to delivery.

[This article is based on the news: ‘Flipping a Gene Switch Reactivates Fetal Hemoglobin, May Reverse Sickle Cell Disease’ by ScienceDaily.com]