Cao Shugeng, Kingston David G I
Department of Chemistry, M/C 0212, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061.
Pharm Biol. 2009 Aug 1;47(8):809-823. doi: 10.1080/13880200902988629.
The approach to new drugs through natural products has proved to be the single most successful strategy for the discovery of new drugs, but in recent years its use has been deemphasized by many pharmaceutical companies in favor of approaches based on combinatorial chemistry and genomics, among others.Drug discovery from natural sources requires continued access to plant, marine, and microbial biomass, and so the preservation of tropical rainforests is an important part of our drug discovery program. Sadly, many of the tropical forests of the world are under severe environmental pressure, and deforestation is a serious problem in most tropical countries. One way to combat this loss is to demonstrate their value as potential sources of new pharmaceutical or agrochemical products.As part of an effort to integrate biodiversity conservation and drug discovery with economic development, we initiated an International Cooperative biodiversity Group (ICBG) to discover potential pharmaceuticals from the plant biodiversity of Suriname and Madagascar. The Group, established with funding from agencies of the United States government, involved participants from the USA, Suriname, and Madagascar. The basic approach was to search for bioactive plants in the Suriname and Malagasy flora, and to isolate their bioactive constituents by the best available methods, but the work included capacity building as well as research. Progress on this project will be reported, drawing on results obtained from the isolation of bioactive natural products from Suriname and Madagascar. The benefits of this general approach to biodiversity and drug discovery will also be discussed.
通过天然产物研发新药已被证明是发现新药最成功的单一策略，但近年来，许多制药公司不再重视这种方法，转而青睐基于组合化学和基因组学等的方法。从天然来源发现药物需要持续获取植物、海洋和微生物生物质，因此保护热带雨林是我们药物发现计划的重要组成部分。遗憾的是，世界上许多热带森林面临着巨大的环境压力，森林砍伐在大多数热带国家都是一个严重问题。应对这种损失的一种方法是证明它们作为新药品或农用化学品潜在来源的价值。作为将生物多样性保护、药物发现与经济发展相结合努力的一部分，我们发起了一个国际合作生物多样性小组（ICBG），从苏里南和马达加斯加的植物生物多样性中发现潜在药物。该小组由美国政府机构资助成立，成员来自美国、苏里南和马达加斯加。基本方法是在苏里南和马达加斯加的植物群中寻找具有生物活性的植物，并通过现有最佳方法分离其生物活性成分，但这项工作包括能力建设以及研究。将根据从苏里南和马达加斯加分离生物活性天然产物获得的结果，报告该项目的进展情况。还将讨论这种生物多样性和药物发现通用方法的益处。
