Biodiversity: potential source for drug discovery

Quimica nova

Bolzani, Vanderlan da Silva¹  Barreiro, Eliezer J.² 

[1] Universidade Estadual Paulista, Araraquara, Brasil;Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

关键词: biodiversity;    natural products;    drugs;    medicinal chemistry.;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S0100-40422009000300012

学科分类：化学（综合）

来源: Sociedade Brasileira de Quimica

【 摘 要 】

In economic terms, biodiversity transcends theboundaries usually given to conventional industries because it is a valuablesource of biological and chemical data of great use to drug discovery. Certainly,the use of natural products has been the single most successful strategy inthe discovery of novel medicines, and most of the medical breakthroughs arebased on natural products. Half of the top 20 best-selling drugs are naturalproducts, and their total sales amounted to US$ 16 billions shows the importanceof natural products, which is evidenced by the new chemical entities (NCE) approvedby regulatory authorities around the world in the past decade. Recently, theapproval of the alkaloid galanthamine as a medicine to treat Alzheimer's diseaseshows that natural compounds from plants will continue to reach the market.The huge biological diversity of the Brazilian biomes, by its ability to generatenew knowledge and technological innovation can be a fantastic alternative asraw material for drug discovery.

【 授权许可】

CC BY