Drugs From Nature, Then and Now – Medicines By Design

 

From the article at the US National Institutes of Health,  last reviewed on October 27, 2011

Chapter 3: Drugs From Nature, Then and Now – Medicines By Design – Science Education – National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Long before the first towns were built, before written language was invented, and even before plants were cultivated for food, the basic human desires to relieve pain and prolong life fueled the search for medicines. No one knows for sure what the earliest humans did to treat their ailments, but they probably sought cures in the plants, animals, and minerals around them.

[The table of contents]

• Nature’s Medicine Cabinet
• Natural Cholesterol-Buster
• Cancer Therapy Sees the Light
• Ocean Medicines
• Miracle Cures
• Prospecting Biology?

• Tweaking Nature
• Toxicogenetics: Poisons and Your Genes
• Is It Chemistry or Genetics?
• Blending Science
• Testing..I, II, III
• Got It? 

  ………

…Crews is among a new breed of researchers delving into a growing scientific area called chemical genetics (see main text). Taking this approach, scientists use chemistry to attack biological problems that traditionally have been solved through genetic experiments such as the genetic engineering of bacteria, yeast, and mice. Crews’ goal is to explore how natural products work in living systems and to identify new targets for designing drugs. He has discovered how an inflammation-fighting ingredient in the medicinal herb feverfew may work inside cells.

He found that the ingredient, called parthenolide, appears to disable a key process that gets inflammation going. In the case of feverfew, a handful of controlled scientific studies in people have hinted that the herb, also known by its plant name “bachelor’s button,” is effective in combating migraine headaches, but further studies are needed to confirm these preliminary findings….

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