Though medical breakthroughs can be observed through the efforts of natural philosophers ( Withering and Darwin, 1940 341.ġ46, 398 (1940). Whewell in the first half of the 19th century ( Ross, 1962 270. The scientific basis of drug discovery is a recent development, as the term Scientist was only coined by W. To answer these questions, we must entertain the notion that modern drug discovery is now science-based and regulated. What changes have been wrought since the early Enlightenment that has rehabilitated the standing of drug discovery and medicine?
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Surely, this denigration of drugs and medicine could have been a prevailing thought of the day, and that bitter statement soberly brings us to the revelation that a discipline now so respected, garnered much disdain a mere 500 years ago in our long human history. R., Timon of Athens: The New Temple Shakespeare ( The actual origin of medicine may be of lesser repute the great bard William Shakespeare vividly stated in Timon of Athens: “Trust not the physician his antidotes are poison, and he slays more than you rob.” (Tim. Yet, these collective memories of respect may be a relatively new invention, an artifact of revisionist history that sought to elevate the healer and the healer's wares. As myths gave way to possible historical figures that have been treasured icons through several ages, such as Hippocrates of Cos, there appears to us in the modern day that a general societal reverence for drug discovery and the healing arts has always existed. Similar stories about the search for longevity or immortality are found in many mythologies. One of the earliest poems, the Epic of Gilgamesh, recounts the tale of a quest for a magical herb that can prevent decay. Our early ancestors were already utilizing the abundance granted by Nature, whether plants or animals, to extend the quality of life by alleviating pain and promoting healing.
The overview of the biophysical methods in this review is meant to showcase the uses of multiple techniques for different modalities and present recent applications for tackling particularly challenging situations in drug development that can be solved with the aid of fluorescence spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and small-angle scattering.ĭrug discovery is certainly not a modern human endeavor.
As therapies have advanced from small molecules to protein biologics and now messenger RNA vaccines, the depth of biophysical knowledge must continue to serve in drug discovery and development to ensure quality of the drug, and the characterization toolbox must be opened up to adapt traditional spectroscopic methods and adopt new techniques for unraveling the complexities of the new modalities. The availability of atomic force microscopes in the past several decades enables measurements that are, in some ways, complementary to the spectroscopic techniques, and wholly orthogonal in others, such as those related to nanomechanics. With the expansion of commercial small-angle x-ray scattering instruments into the laboratory setting and the accessibility of industrial researchers to small-angle neutron scattering facilities, scattering methods are now used more frequently in the industrial research setting, and probe-less time-resolved small-angle scattering experiments are now able to be conducted to truly probe the mechanism of reactions and the location of individual components in complex model or biological systems. The tools more familiar to scientists within industry and beyond, such as nuclear magnetic resonance and fluorescence spectroscopy, serve two functions: as simple high-throughput techniques for identification and purity analysis, and as potential tools for measuring dynamics and structures of complex biological systems, from proteins and nucleic acids to membranes and nanoparticle delivery systems. Spectroscopic, scattering, and imaging methods play an important role in advancing the study of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical therapies.