The future of natural products as a source of new antibiotics
Curr Opin Investig Drugs. 2007 Aug
Luzhetskyy A, Pelzer S, Bechthold A.
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Institut für Pharmazeutische Wissenschaften, Pharmazeutische Biologie und Biotechnologie, Stefan-Meier-Straße 19, D-79194 Freiburg, Germany. andreas.bechthold@pharmazie.uni-freiburg.de.
One reason for the current crisis in antibiotic development is the low return on investment, which is intrinsic to anti-infective drug development. Despite this, smaller pharmaceutical companies are attempting to address the medical need for new antibiotics. Natural products have played a major role in antibiotic drug discovery since 1941 when penicillin was introduced to the market, and currently natural products are again the most important source for promising drug candidates. This review discusses novel methods and technologies that will increase the success rate for identifying novel antibiotics from natural sources.
PMID: 17668363 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
New aspects of natural products in drug discovery
Trends Microbiol. 2007 Jun
Lam KS.
Nereus Pharmaceuticals Inc., 10480 Wateridge Circle, San Diego, CA 92121, USA. rlam@nereuspharm.com
During the past 15 years, most large pharmaceutical companies have decreased the screening of natural products for drug discovery in favor of synthetic compound libraries. Main reasons for this include the incompatibility of natural product libraries with high-throughput screening and the marginal improvement in core technologies for natural product screening in the late 1980s and early 1990 s. Recently, the development of new technologies has revolutionized the screening of natural products. Applying these technologies compensates for the inherent limitations of natural products and offers a unique opportunity to re-establish natural products as a major source for drug discovery. Examples of these new advances and technologies are described in this review.
Science Direct
