Proteomics Using Proteomics in Drug

Proteomics

Using Proteomics in Drug Discovery

Proteins are the essential building blocks of organic cells, and are involved at the most basic and simplified level of many processes and mechanisms that occur within the body. This makes an understanding of protein functions and effects essential in the development of new chemical mechanisms for altering the processes of the body, i.e. pharmaceuticals. As understandings of the workings of specific proteins and proteases, which are sequences of amino acids that comprise larger proteins, become more accurate and more refined, new possibilities for the discovery of drugs whose functionality and efficacy is a product of their interactions with proteins and proteases arise. This paper examines several pieces of recent medical scholarship and investigation in order to develop and describe a brief yet broad overview of the ways in which proteomics can lead to the development of more effective and more specifically targeted pharmaceuticals.

One profound example of the way in which improved knowledge of protein and protease function has led to improvements in drug development comes from the recognition of the true role of Amyloid-( build up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. The processes that produce Amyloid-( were once thought to be purely symptomatic and degenerative, but are now understood to be natural processes that can produce excess amounts of the protease leading to disease (Golde & Kukar 2009). This has led to the creation of several pharmaceutical substances that disrupt the production of Amyloid-(, pre-empting one of the physiological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (Golde & Kukar 2009).

The above case demonstrates how the study of proteomics relating directly to human beings can be used to develop disease-preventing or -- treating pharmaceuticals. Proteomics can also lead to a better understanding of foreign biological disease-causing agents. Many infectious bacteria are difficult to eliminate without causing harm to the host organism as well, such as several species of the genus Leishmania for which chemotherapy has long been the only effective treatment (Kumari et al. 2008). Proteomics has led to the development of other drugs that work to inhibit certain protein and protease production processes in the bacteria, leading to their eradication without the harsh and host-harming toxicity of chemotherapy (Kumari et al. 2008). Other forms of chemotherapy specifically targeting specific protease substances have also been developed through an application of proteomics, suggesting still more avenues for research and pharmaceutical development utilizing the chemical knowledge and awareness gained from the study of proteins (Heal et al. 2008). As the substrates of proteases are better understood, methods have been developed to target specific proteases or families of proteases, making specific disease-agent or -- condition substances more easily targeted (Heal et al. 2008).