Clinical Pharmacology in the Molecular Era

Developing drug prototypes: pharmacology replaces safety and tolerability?

New medicines are designed to bind to receptors or enzymes and are tested in animal cells, tissues and whole organisms in a highly scientific process. Subsequently they are often administered to human subjects with tolerability as the primary objective. The process of development is considered to be linear and consecutive and passes through the famous four phases of development (Phase I-Phase IV). This is efficient for those projects for which the uncertainty about the development is low. There is, however, an increasing number of new prototypical compounds resulting from the increased biological knowledge with a high level of uncertainty. For these prototypical drugs development has to proceed in a much more adaptive manner, using tailor-made objectives, the development of special methodology and a cyclical rather than a linear type of project management.

Bioinformatic networks: molecular reticles for pinpointing pharmacological target selection

Bridging centrality was developed as a novel metric to capitalize on rich biological networks and enable selection of therapeutically efficient, druggable candidates. Through incorporation of local and global network properties, targetable nodes are identified that harbor latent capacity to intercept informational flow without compromising systemic functionality. Translational implementation holds potential for increased therapeutic specificity and offers opportunities to add value to drug discovery and development through facilitation of individualized treatment.