How do Medicines Work?

I've always taken medicines for granted, not knowing how they actually work.  I was just researching online because this came up in mind to me, how I never understood how medicines actually work.

Medicines work in a variety of different ways.  The more common ones we take are used to: relieve pain, fight infection, fight diseases, and supplement a deficiency.  But how exactly do the medicines do these jobs?

Well, it all starts off by knowing what happens to the medicine when it enters your body.  There are four main parts to how medicines are processed by your body.  These include administration, delivery, performance, and elimination.

In order for all medicines to work, the must be absorbed into the blood. The most common type of medicine, an oral pill, goes into the stomach and then reaches the small intestine.  These medicines are then absorbed in the small intestine into the blood stream.  So basically, almost all medicines get absorbed into the bloodstream from the small intestine, or they are just injected directly into the bloodstream.

The full article can be found here.

Popeye the Chemist?

Children and adults alike have always been told to eat their vegetables. It has long been known that vegetables contain many essential vitamins and proteins that are beneficial to our bodys. But does anyone truly know just how necessary these yucky green plants are to our bodys? If there are any people who understand the benefits of vegetables, Popeye the Sailor definitely falls under this category. For years, Popeye has been chugging down his cans of Spinach, which have never failed to provide him with all the strength and energy required to be the main character of a television series. But how realistic are the benefits of Popeye's eating habits?

A new study from engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute shows, for the first time, the benefits of spinach and broccoli for our bones. In essence, this study reveals how the little-understood protein osteocalcin plays a significant role in the strength of our bones.

Diagram portraying role of osteocalcin in bone (showing origins of bone fractures):

The significance in this study lies in the fact that it is the first study to ever implicate the role of osteocalcin in giving bone the ability to resist fracture. Since osteocalcin is always the point of fracture, strengthening this protein could lead to the overall strengthening of the bone. However, osteocalcin is also associated with Type 2 Diabetes and problems in reproductive health as well.

Thus, this study is not only promising for the strengthening of bones, but also for a better means of treating Type 2 diabetes and reproductive health issues. The findings of this research study are very promising, and could lead to new strategies and therapeutics for fighting osteoporosis and lowering the risks and pain associated with bone fractures.

 - Sam Choi

New Optical Tweezers for Trapping Specimens Just Nanometers Across

A novel technique has been created by chemistry researchers of Stanford University that poses a great potential leap in the chemistry world. This microscale technique known as "Optical Trapping" uses beams of light as tweezers to hold and manipulate tiny psrticles. This method allows scientists to Trap particles that are smaller than 10 nanometers. Up to this point in time, it was impossible even for top tier scientists with access to the best of technology to manipulate particles of such a small size. This developmet of a new method of trspping particles opens up a myriad of potential uses. The design for this light particle tool is near completion, and researchers expect to develop a prototype by early 2013. Here's a link to the original article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121204154418.htm Stay updated for new posts coming soon! - Sammy C

Medicinal chemists receive 20 million euro grant to optimize drug binding kinetics

 Medicinal chemists receive 20 million euro grant to optimize drug binding kinetics

 In order for newly developed drugs to be used for treating people, these drugs have to pass certain tests to prove their efficiency. Often, the drugs are tested in labs to see if they work in lab experiments; if they succeed, they move on to clinical trials. If they are very successful in treating patients in these trials, then the drugs have a good chance of becoming legal in medicine. However, many drugs that seem successful in lab experiments do not succeed in clinical studies due to lack of effectiveness. There is mounting evidence that binding kinetics - the time a drug remains bound to its pharmaceutically relevant protein target - may be of greater importance for its effect in the patient than its binding affinity. The K4DD consortium, including medicinal chemists Iwan de Esch, Chris de Graaf, Martine Smit, and Rob Leurs, started last week to tackle this problem.
K4DD
The K4DD consortium is financially supported by Europe’s Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) programme and major pharmaceutical companies. "The 20 partners are the key players in their fields: world-leaders in medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology, involved in the structural elucidation of drug targets, and at the forefront of computational modeling and bio-analytical techniques. This ensemble of technologies allows the study of the drug-target interaction from the very first picoseconds to the eventual times of treatment."

The K4DD research consortium is funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a joint undertaking between the European Union and the pharmaceutical industry association EFPIA.
Division of Medicinal Chemistry
Within the Division of Medicinal Chemistry of the Amsterdam Institute for Molecules, Medicines and Systems, funding of 825.000 euro will allow the development of new techniques to measure binding kinetics, as well as better understanding them. With this new understanding, scientists believe that K4DD will be able to create new drugs with "improved kinetic profiles," thus allowing the drugs to be more effective in clinical trials, allowing them to become official medicines.
For more information, visit  http://www.aimms.vu.nl/en/news-events/news-archive/2012/20-million-euro-grant-to-optimize-drug-binding-kinetics.asp

BioMAP screening = New Antibiotics

A really interesting article was posted recently on a scientific research news website. The article gave a summary of the work that researchers at University of California, Santa Cruz have undergone. The focus of their studies is BioMAP screening.

This novel screening procedure allows for new antibiotics to be discovered from natural sources, and in this case, especially marine natural products.

What makes this method of screening even more impressive is that it allows completely new types of antibiotics to be created. It's been a known issue in the field of medicine for bacteria and diseases to become resistant to antibiotics. Thus, by creating completely new types of antibiotics, the bacteria that is already used to conventional drugs will face much more difficulty in remaining resistant to drugs, or remaining alive for that matter.

If you guys have been updating yourselves regularly on our blog, you'll see that one of our latest posts was actually about the issue of how a bacteria gains resistance to drugs. If you've read that post, and understand the ideas behind it, you'll be able to understand how significant this method of BioMAP screening really is. Truly Amazing, and it seems to be very promising for the future creation of drugs!

'till next time,

peace, love, SammyC

(Choi)


P.S. here's the full article in case you guys want to see all the deets.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121126131337.htm

The Chemistry of Pain Relievers

4-hydroxyacetanalide, or acetominophen is commonly used in pain relievers such as Tylenol.

The structure of acetominophen

 Acetominophen works as a pain reliever by inhibiting the creation of prostaglandins, which are chemical messengers that transmit pain signals.  Acetominophen blocks the signaling of these prostaglandins, bot does not block some other characteristics of them.  An example of this is that prostaglandins promote the inflammation of body tissues during injury, and acetominophen does not inhibit the swelling.
You can find more information at : http://www.chemistryexplained.com/A-Ar/Acetaminophen.html#b

Students Develop Molecule that Inhibits Influenza Virus

Faculty-directed undergraduate student researchers at Alma College have managed to develope a molecule that can inhibit certain strains of the influenza virus, three years after receiving a $150,000 National Science Foundation grant. By receiving the grant, the researchers managed to fund the project of synthesizing neuraminidase inhibitors that could guide the future development of antiviral drugs, according to principal investigator Jeff Turk.

 (Picture of Jeff Turk and his students researching medicinal drugs.)

According to Turk,“The influenza virus spreads in the body by an enzyme-mediated pathway. The neuraminidase enzyme found on the surface of the influenza virus is responsible, in part, for the spread of the virus. If we can create a molecule that inhibits the neuraminidase protein, we can slow or even halt the spread of the virus.”

Initially, Turk designed a computer model of small molecules with the potential to bind inside the neuraminidase protein, inhibiting the influenza infection. Over the course of the NSF grant, Turk and his students synthesized, evaluated and modified the molecules.

With his discovery, Turk intends to seek additional grant funding so as to be able to apply his research to the creation of medicinal drugs, while at the same time receiving endorsements from  James Stevens, a scientist and team lead in the Virology Surveillance and Diagnosis Branch of the Influenza Division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who intends to assist Turk in his research.

 Over the course of the NSF grant, 12 students have participated in the project, and 11 students have presented research findings at local and national American Chemical Society meetings. With the help of these students, Turk manages to get reinforcement on his research and enlighten their minds so that they may be able to achieve medical breakthroughs in the future.

“We have made significant progress on our research because of the efforts of our undergraduates students,” says Turk. “This is a culmination of only three summers of work, and the progress they have made is very commendable.”

With the introduction of undergraduate students into his research, and with additional funding, Turk believes that his research will manage to create a drug that suppresses several strains of the influenza virus better than other drugs for the virus.

For more information, visit the website: http://www.alma.edu/news/releases/archives/2012/11/16/drug_discovery