Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
Structural Biology of Drug Development
– Anti-cancer
Carfilzomib is an anti-cancer medication developed by Onyx Pharmaceuticals, now a subsidiary of Amgen. It is sold under the brand name of Kyprolis. In July 2012, carfilzomib was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Its target in the cell is the proteasome which is a large macromolecular complex containing multiple proteases.
Remdesivir – a Battle against COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Remdesivir, a broad-spectrum antiviral developed by Gilead Sciences, Inc., has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2020 for the treatment of COVID-19.
Avidity-based Antibody Therapy
In certain cases, an antibody, the principal effector of the immune system, can interact only weakly with the monomeric form of a molecule that is essential for normal physiological activities of the cell, but quite strongly with the pathogenic oligomeric form of the same molecule. This property has been successfully utilized in the development of some antibodies as biotherapeutic drugs for diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
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Structural Biology of Drug Development – Target HIV
One of the most remarkable examples of structure-guided drug design effort has been the development of drugs for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Based on the three-dimensional structure of HIV protease, saquinavir was developed by Roche Pharmaceuticals in the mid 1990’s. In 2018, the US FDA approved biktarvy, a viral integrase inhibitor, developed by Gilead Sciences, Inc.
Immunity and vaccines
Immunity is all about recognition – it is the ability of the human body to recognize what is foreign as opposed to what is self. Vaccination is an effective way to induce active immunity in humans. COVID-19 whole inactivated virus and mRNA vaccines have saved billions of lives around the globe.