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- Tulp, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Food for thought
- 2006
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Ingår i: Drug Discovery Today. - : Elsevier BV. - 1359-6446 .- 1878-5832. ; 11:23-24, s. 1115-1121
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Do certain kinds of food contain pharmacologically active substances in concentrations that are high enough to have druglike effects when consumed? Are biologically active compounds in food indicative of therapeutic value? Is traditional drug development suitable for testing the merits of food? Is it ethical to test food as a drug on patients? Will dietary disease management remain a pipedream? Is it a fact or fantasy that the Mediterranean diet is beneficial to health? Is a vegetarian diet an elimination therapy, or one of supplementation? What can be learned from animals? Are humans losing the capability of listening to their bodies? In this review, we will address these questions-providing food for thought.
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| 3. |
- Tulp, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Functional versus chemical diversity: is biodiversity important for drug discovery?
- 2002
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Ingår i: TIPS - Trends in Pharmacological Sciences. - 0165-6147 .- 1873-3735. ; 23:5, s. 225-231
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Prospecting the full biodiversity of nature to find leads for new drugs is not necessary. Because finding leads is aimed at identifying biological activity, structure is of secondary importance. Furthermore, although natural chemical diversity might be unrivalled, functional diversity is bound to be considerably less. It is likely that many millions of chemically distinct molecules exist in nature but it is inconceivable that the number of different biological functions is near this number. This is corroborated by knowledge obtained from the genome sequences of an increasing number of species. It is unlikely that ligands for specific molecular targets are restricted to one species and even individual compounds are often found in more than one species. Important molecular mechanisms are likely to be ubiquitous and there are no a priori reasons to assume that some are restricted to, for example, tropical rainforests. Thus, there are no obvious advantages of ‘biodiversity prospecting’, which will, possibly, endanger fragile ecosystems in the search for rare species.
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| 4. |
- Tulp, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Rediscovery of known natural compounds : nuisance or goldmine?
- 2005
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Ingår i: Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0968-0896 .- 1464-3391. ; 13:17, s. 5274-5282
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Do all natural compounds have a distinct biological activity, or are most of them merely biosynthetic debris? Many natural compounds have important biological functions, and certainly many more of the ample 200,000 currently known will ultimately prove to be more than just 'secondary metabolites'. The question is how to select the most promising candidates for potential new drugs. 'Rediscovery' of known natural compounds is regarded as a nuisance or disappointment by scientists involved with the identification of novel compounds. The other side of the coin, however, is that the discovery that a particular compound occurs in unrelated species can be a valuable clue toward the identification of a novel receptor or enzyme. Here, we put forward the hypothesis that when a natural compound occurs in unrelated species, it must have an important biological function by interacting with a specific molecular target. This is because it is extremely improbable that in nature one particular compound is synthesized in totally unrelated species for no reason at all. For many compounds occurring in unrelated species, it is already known that they act on specific molecular targets. For others, it is just known that they occur in different species. In some cases, biological activities are known but not the underlying mechanisms of action. It is from this category of compounds that important discoveries are likely to be made. Some (around 70) of them were identified. They represent important clues from nature offering an alternative approach to the classical screening of large numbers of compounds.
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| 6. |
- Tulp, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Unconventional natural sources for future drug discovery
- 2004
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Ingår i: Drug Discovery Today. - 1359-6446 .- 1878-5832. ; 9:10, s. 450-458
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- ‘There are more things between heaven and earth…’ Despite the progress of science during the past four centuries, Shakespeare's words did not lose their actuality. Knowledge about the etiology of diseases is still limited, and for many life-threatening illnesses no effective treatments exist. Nature always has been a valuable source of drugs and, despite the unprecedented opportunities afforded by medicinal chemistry, continues to deliver lead compounds. Traditionally, research on natural sources was focused on terrestrial plants and microorganisms. More recently, however, organisms of marine origin are also being investigated. Here, the possibilities of unconventional and hardly explored sources are discussed.
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