title: Considerations of the chemical biology of microbial natural products provide an effective drug discovery strategy.
abstract: Conventional approaches to natural product drug discovery rely mainly on random searches for bioactive compounds using bioassays. These traditional approaches do not incorporate a chemical biology perspective. Searching for bioactive molecules using a chemical and biological rationale constitutes a powerful search paradigm. Here, the authors review recent examples of the discovery of bioactive natural products based on chemical and biological interactions between hosts and symbionts, and propose this method provides a more effective means of exploring natural chemical diversity and eventually of discovering new drugs.
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan, 712-749, Republic of Korea. h5choi@yu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Hyukjae
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Natural Products Research Institute, College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 151-742, Republic of Korea. dongchanoh@snu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Dong-Chan
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Oh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001688:Biological Products / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002626:Chemistry, Pharmaceutical / Q000379:methods*; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D050296:Microbial Viability / Q000187:drug effects*; D013559:Symbiosis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products
keywords: Bioactive compound; Chemical biology; Drug discovery; Insect; Marine invertebrate; Microbe; Natural product; Symbiosis