• Question: How do scientists make cures?

    Asked by anon-252111 to Katie on 20 May 2020.
    • Photo: Katie Stevens

      Katie Stevens answered on 20 May 2020:

      Hi there! Great question. There are lots of different types of cures such as antibiotics to treat bacterial infection, chemotherapy, gene therapy and lots of others!

      Firstly, scientists have to research and understand what is causing the disease, where in the body it acts and what it does to the body. By learning about the biology of the disease, targets for things that might work as a cure can be found (for example, in a disease where a particular protein does not work as as it should, this protein could be a good target to cure the disease). Quite often there are a lot of potential molecules which could interact with the target to cure the disease. Scientists can screen hundreds of these molecules to see which show an activity meaning they could work well as a cure.

      Once a potential cure has been found, researchers then test to see how safe it is and how well it protects against the disease. It would be rubbish to have a cure for the common cold, for example, that made you even more sick when you took it!

Comments

  • Photo: Tiffany

    Tiffany commented on :

    Thought I add to this from a more medicinal chemistry perspective, though Katie’s already given a great answer!

    For small molecule drugs (such as those used in chemotherapy), there are usually two routes: we can either screen potential molecules against a particular target and hopefully identify some molecules that interact with it (we called these ‘hits’). Medicinal chemists can then try and change the molecule to make it work even better; for example, drugs often need to fit in specific ‘pockets’ of a protein to work, so changing the structure might lead to a better fit (almost like a lock and key).

    Alternatively, it’s also possible to design a molecule completely from scratch – though this obviously takes longer! The structures of many proteins can be found online (e.g. https://www.rcsb.org/) and we can use these to try and design a molecule that might ‘fit’ inside a particular pocket.

    Once we have molecules that look like they might work, we usually have to test them in cells, in animals and then, finally, in humans. (Most drugs in development actually never make it all the way to being used by humans!) Happy to chat more if you want 🙂