Week 6 Post 1

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Week 3 Post 2

Understanding what proteins are is critical to being able to identify the protein pathways to target with a drug to disrupt the disease. Proteins are made up of amino acids bound together. They are unique not only in which amino acids makes them up, but also how the have folded into structures, and how those structures has folded. Some proteins also only work when folded with another protein. Proteins are very complex, and the amount of different proteins are vast. When a drug targets a specific protein, they are looking to interrupt its purpose and with that disrupt the disease. This is usually done by either blocking the binding location with a molecule, or making an inhibitor that will stop the production of whatever that protein is doing. The way the drugs that are developed requires a deep understanding of proteins and protein structure. The chemistry involved in designing molecules to have very specific properties, and the biology to determine which proteins to target is immens...
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Week 11 Post 2

When discovering drugs, a large drug corporation will have a library of molecules to test against the target protein. These drug libraries are huge, with millions of molecules.The initial test are exclusively to find the molecules that best bind to the protein. This can be anywhere from 0.1%-10% of the drugs tested. then these "hits" are tested for toxicity, patents, and many other things before they can be patented themselves. Most drugs are about 20-25 non hydrogen atoms. That is a lot of combinations and to effectively search through all those atoms requires a large drug company. The newer drug companies and universities don't have the huge libraries to search through. they use the fragment method. This method requires a much smaller library, as the goal is to find two molecules that have a somewhat high activity constant, and fit into the binding sites on the target protein. these two molecules are then fused together to make a proper sized drug. The drug libraries ...
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Week 8 Post 2

There are two main models when trying to interpret data based on concentration of drug in the bloods plasma. Firstly, the one compartment model. This model treats the whole body as one compartment. the central compartment is some volume of plasma, depending on weight. then when the drug is injected in, the concentration is at max, and then as the body begins to remove the medicine through the kidneys or as waste or through general metabolism. The other model is the two compartment model. This has the circulatory system as the central compartment, and the rest of the places the drug could go in a body as the peripheral compartment. This includes muscles or tissues where the drug does what its supposed to. The different ways to model the circulatory system and concentration of drug in plasma shows the complexity of the effects of drugs on the body and how to control them. The dosage when using an IV can be changed in many ways, whether its more per minute or for longer amount of time. ...
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