Biodiversity: potential source for drug discovery

Química Nova

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil¹  Bolzani, Vanderlan da Silva¹  Universidade Estadual Paulista, Araraquara, Brasil¹  Barreiro, Eliezer J.¹ 

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 the boundaries usually given to conventional industries because it is a valuable source of biological and chemical data of great use to drug discovery. Certainly, the use of natural products has been the single most successful strategy in the discovery of novel medicines, and most of the medical breakthroughs are based on natural products. Half of the top 20 best-selling drugs are natural products, and their total sales amounted to US$ 16 billions shows the importance of natural products, which is evidenced by the new chemical entities (NCE) approved by regulatory authorities around the world in the past decade. Recently, the approval of the alkaloid galanthamine as a medicine to treat Alzheimer's disease shows that natural compounds from plants will continue to reach the market. The huge biological diversity of the Brazilian biomes, by its ability to generate new knowledge and technological innovation can be a fantastic alternative as raw material for drug discovery.

【 授权许可】

Unknown