Ten thousand
years of testing in one year
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LESS ANIMAL TESTING: In Norway,
well over 1 million animals give their lives to research every
year. Computer simulation can reduce the need for animal testing.
Photo: Scanpix |
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Which chemicals are best suited to be used
as drugs? The use of a computer simulation to find out saves time,
money – and animal lives.
Developing new medicines is usually a long
and costly process. Now, methods are being developed that allow
some of the testing required in drug development that normally take
years to complete to be done in just a fraction of the time. With
the help of mathematical calculations and computer simulations,
researchers can quickly find out if a substance has the qualities
and characteristics of an effective drug before it is tested in
the real world.
ACCURATE
Chemical researcher Kristin Tøndel believes that the new
method she is developing has promise. “Right now we are looking
into new treatments for cancer. We started with more than 250,000
chemical compounds. From this foundation we identified about 1,200
compounds that we wanted to test further. After one year we are
left with eight compounds that we hope can form the basis for a
new medicine. It is clear that without computer simulation, it would
have been impossible for us to start with such a wide range of compounds.
If we were to test these substances experimentally in a laboratory,
we might have managed perhaps 20-40 substances in a year. In other
words, it would have taken us 10,000 years to test these 250,000
chemical compounds using traditional methods.
“The use of traditional tests would have
meant excluding compounds that from the beginning did not look promising,
but that still might have turned out to have great potential. Using
our method we can test a far greater number of chemicals. Use of
our method also eventually means that a much smaller number of chemicals
need to be actually tested, and the likelihood that the chemicals
being tested will be effective also increases dramatically.”
TRICKS BAD
PROTEINS
The computer programme, which has been developed from a widely
available software programme, simulates the effects that chemical
compounds have on the body.
“My research is focussed on the development
of new cures for cancer, specifically, finding chemical compounds
that attach themselves to proteins involved in the growth and spread
of cancer cells.We are trying to find chemical compounds that ‘trick’
the protein into believing that it is attached to the body’s own
material. If we find such a compound, we can prevent the protein
from aiding in the growth of the cancerous cells, and we are well
on our way to developing a new medicine”, Tøndel explains. Hercomputer
programme can simulate how different compounds interact with proteins,
in order to identify promising candidates for new drugs.
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BLOCKS CANCER: With the help of computer
simulation, researchers can see which compounds (green) attach
to, and block, the functions of a protein (red) that helps
the cancer cells multiply. The simulation gives a visual representation
of which compounds could be used as drugs.
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FROM CHEMISTRY
TO MEDICINE
The method was initially used in chemistry for calculating
smaller molecular structures. Researchers discovered that it could
also be used in calculations for larger molecules, like protein
structures. A protein is made up of chains of what are called amino
acids. Today, the structures of many proteins have already been
determined experimentally, and can be found in large databases available
on the Internet.
“Other researchers use similar methods, but
we have developed it further, so that we can even test protein structures
that have not yet been determined experimentally. We simply model
the protein using the structure of a related protein as a starting
point. Our method is especially adapted to such protein models.
Hence, we can also simulate the effects that different chemicals
have on the protein, and if they are appropriate for laboratory
testing”, Tøndel explains. The method can also be used in other
medical research fields, such as HIV/AIDS research.
ETHICAL BENEFITS
The main disadvantage of the new method is that not all chemicals
are physically tested, so there is no definitive answer as to whether
or not they would actually work.
“We run the risk of discarding compounds
through simulation that in practice could have proven to be effective,
but I think the benefits of our method far outweigh the disadvantages.
We can develop new medicines faster, less expensively, and more
effectively. Another important benefit is that the method reduces
the need for animal testing, and ultimately human testing, because
only compounds we really have faith in will be the subject of practical
tests. This is important, particularly from an ethical standpoint”,
Tøndel says.
By Christian Fossen
Contact: Kristin Tøndel, Department of Cancer
Research and Molecular Medicine, NTNU
Tel: +47 73 59 86 47 Email: kristin.tondel@ntnu.no
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