BIOTECHNOLOGY

• This is a discipline devoted to the discovery and development of new agents for treating diseases

  Medicinal Chemistry
• Application of technology to improve biological organism (modify function by adding genes from another organism)


  Biotechnology
• American Chemical Society defines this as the application of biological organisms, systems, or processes by various industries to learn about the science of life and the improvement of the value of materials and organisms such as pharmaceuticals, crops, and livestock.

  Biotechnology
• The pharmacist must maintain an adequate knowledge of agents produced through the methods of biotechnology and remain “in the loop” for new developments.


  BIOTECHNOLOGY AND PHARMACEUTICAL CARE
• The language of biotechnology encompasses:

  • organic chemistry
  • biochemistry
  • physiology
  • pharmacology
  • medicinal chemistry
  • immunology
  • molecular biology
  • and microbiology
• The key techniques that unlocked the door to the biotechnology arena are those of rDNA, also known as genetic engineering.
• process of using recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology to alter the genetic makeup of an organism.


  genetic engineering
• Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Care has forever altered the drug discovery process and the thinking about patient care
• recombinant DNA (rDNA)-driven drug discovery process is beginning to yield new avenues for the preparation of some old drugs
• the process of generating a genetically identical copy of a cell or an organism


  Cloning
• Molecular cloning of novel receptors can provide access to tremendous tools for the testing of drugs (e.g., the adrenergic receptors), whereas cloning of a novel growth factor might potentially provide a new therapeutic agent.
• A goal of biotechnology in the early 21st century is to eliminate the “one-drug-fits-all” paradigm for pharmaceutical care
• The drug factory you’d never expect

  Bacteria
• the building block of proteins in our bodies, are important examples of primary metabolites

  Amino acids
• Every living organism is able to produce molecules known as primary metabolites that are essential for growth, development, or reproduction.
• Certain organisms, like plants, fungi and bacteria, are able to make another class of molecules that we call secondary metabolites, or natural products.
• Intermediate end products of metabolism.


  metabolites
• are essential for the proper growth of microorganisms.

  Primary metabolites
• are formed near the stationary phase of growth and are not involved in growth, reproduction and development.

  Secondary metabolites
• compounds that are commonly produced by all plants and that are directly used in plant growth and development

  Primary metabolites
• What are the main primary merabolites?

  Carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids
• Examples of Primary metabolites


  Essential metabolites and Metabolic End Products
• Examples of essential metabolites


  Amino acids, nucleosides, vitamins, and enzymes
• Examples of metabolic end products


  Ethanol and organic
• One important use of natural products is antibiotic
• First true antibiotic

  Penicillin: Penicillium notatum (fungus)
• Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming (1928)
• the golden age of antibiotic discovery

  1940s to 1960s
• also known as sirolimus, From bacteria Streptomyces hygroscopicus, used clinically as an immunosuppressant, during a kidney transplant


  Rapamycin
• a natural product found from Streptomyces verticillus. Chemotherapy drug used in the treatment for a range of cancers


  Bleomycin
• Recombinant DNA technology involves using enzymes and various laboratory techniques to manipulate and isolate DNA segments of interest.
• DNA → RNA → protein


  Central Dogma
• are organic molecules composed of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate.


  Nucleotides
• are organic molecules composed of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate.


  Nucleotides
• a study of genes and their functions

  GENOMICS
• Describe the transcription of the information contained in the DNA code into mRNA molecules that are translated into the proteins that perform the major functions of the cell.

  Gene expression
• can detect changes in gene expression levels, expression patterns (e.g., the cell cycle), genomic gains and losses (e.g., lost or broken parts of chromosomes in cancer cells), and mutations in DNA (single-nucleotide polymorphism [SNPs]).

  DNA microarrays
• a scientific endeavor that attempts to study the sum total of all of the proteins in a cell from the point of view of their individual functions and how the interaction of specific proteins with other cellular components affects the function of these proteins.

  PROTEOMICS
• the branch of genetics concerned with the way in which an individual's genetic attributes affect the likely response to therapeutic drugs.

  Pharmacogenomics