Drug discovery prospect from untapped species: indications from approved natural product drugs.
Due to extensive bioprospecting efforts of the past and technology factors, there have been questions about drug discovery prospect from untapped species. We analyzed recent trends of approved drugs derived from previously untapped species, which show no sign of untapped drug-productive species being near extinction and suggest high probability of deriving new drugs from new species in existing drug-productive species families and clusters. Case histories of recently approved drugs reveal useful strategies for deriving new drugs from the scaffolds and pharmacophores of the natural product leads of these untapped species. New technologies such as cryptic gene-cluster exploration may generate novel natural products with highly anticipated potential impact on drug discovery.
The Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Guangdong Province, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
Feng
F
Zhu
Xiao Hua
XH
Ma
Chu
C
Qin
Lin
L
Tao
Xin
X
Liu
Zhe
Z
Shi
Cun Long
CL
Zhang
Chun Yan
CY
Tan
Yu Zong
YZ
Chen
Yu Yang
YY
Jiang
D001688:Biological Products / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D000458:Cyanobacteria / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D017277:Drug Approval; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D005658:Fungi / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D018973:Intellectual Property; D005810:Multigene Family; D010944:Plants / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics
D001688:Biological Products