Drug development: Lessons from nature (Review)

Mathur,Sunil; Hoskins,Clare

doi:10.3892/br.2017.909

Drug development: Lessons from nature (Review)

Authors:
- Sunil Mathur
- Clare Hoskins
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Affiliations: Molecular Drug Research Laboratory, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh EH11 4BN, UK, Institute of Science and Technology in Medicine, Keele University, Hartshill, Stoke‑on‑Trent ST4 7QB, UK
Published online on: May 9, 2017 https://doi.org/10.3892/br.2017.909
Pages: 612-614

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Abstract

Natural products have been acknowledged for numerous years as a vital source of active ingredients in therapeutic agents. In particular, the use of active ingredients derived from plants for use in microbial natural products have long been used before the dawn of modern medicine. From ancient times, the efficacy of natural products has been associated with the chemistry, biochemistry and synthetic activities of natural products. Thus, with scientific advancement in modern molecular and cellular biology, analytical chemistry and pharmacology, the unique properties of these natural products are being harnessed in order to exploit the chemical and structural diversity and biodiversity of these types of products in relation to their therapeutic effect. Often, new molecules of interest in drug design units focus on the rearrangement of chemical entities or structural isomers of naturally occurring products in order to generate new molecules; these may be formulated into clinically useful therapies.

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