Opinion on pharmacology research and new drug development from precision medicine

Since President Obama announced the Precision Medicine Initiative from a national strategy perspective in his State of the Union address,precision medicine has rapidly become a world-wide hotspot and drawn global attention in the medical field.Precision medicine aims at applying genetic information of individual diseases to guide his or her diagnosis and treatment.

Application Research of Earned Value Management in New Drug Research and Development Projects

Objective To help investors assess and control the costs of new drug development and reduce the risks of new drug development projects.Methods Cost analysis and financial forecasting were carried out with the integrated approach of earned value management.According to the principle of earned value management deviation analysis,the basic process of the new drug research and development project was combined with the hypothesis method from the research of Tufts Drug Development Research Center.Results and Conclusion If the project progress check was carried out in the clinical trial,the project costs were found overspent,the efficiency was low,the project progress was faster,and the resource investment was ahead.It is recommended that the adjustment should be made to reduce the input of resources,and increase the efficient key personnel to take the place of some less efficient staff.

Developing new drugs from annals of Chinese medicine

Developing new pharmaceuticals requires massive amounts of time,money and efforts.The key step is how to find a safe and effective entity for a disease condition and how to develop it as new drug effectively.Unfortunately,the FDA’s rate of approving new entities has declined dramatically in the last three decades.There is a strong need to review the current strategy and to optimize process in developing new drugs,both to shorten the process and increase the success rate.Chinese medicine has used natural products to treat patients for thousands of years,and Chinese medicine practitioners have chronicled the patients and treatment methods for thousands of years.There is much information that has not yet been used.The success stories of artimisinin and arsentic trioxide are wonderful examples of how the annals of Chinese medicine can provide leads for discovering new drugs.This paper argues that the annals of Chinese medicine are valuable and describes how they can be used in modern drug discovery.The major topics addressed are:(i)why Chinese medicine is a rich resource for finding new drugs;(ii)how to identify a potential valuable record from Chinese medicine annals;(iii)when a potential valuable record is identified from annals,how to proceed;and(iv)both why and how the approach used for chemical drugs should be revised for drugs based on the historical documents related to herbal medicine.In conclusion,we argue here that the annals of Chinese medicine offer not only a rich resource for new drugs,but also several centuries of patient data with regard to safety and efficacy,that in effect represent pilot studies.Acknowledging and using these data can shorten new drug discovery time and improve efficiency of the drug development process,bringing more effective,safe drugs to market much more quickly and cheaply.

Network pharmacology-based elucidation of molecular biological mechanisms of Qizhu Yuling Decoction for treatment of esophagus cancer

Objective:To investigate the active compounds,key targets and molecular mechanism of Qizhu Yuling Decoction in the treatment of esophageal carcinoma based on network pharmacology.Methods:The active compounds of Qizhu Yuling Decoction with anti-esophageal cancer activity were screened by TCMSP and literature search,and the drug targets were searched by DrugBank and predicted by SwissTargetPrediction.The esophageal cancer-related genes were obtained from GeneCards,OMIM,DrugBank,TTD,DisGeNET,and the intersection network was selected to obtain candidate genes.The"herb-compound-target-disease"network was constructed with Cytoscape,the PPI network was constructed in STRING and core network modules were screened.Gene ontology and KEGG enrichment analysis was performed by using Metascape,and the"pathway-gene"network was constructed to further screen key targets.Results:A total of 47 active compounds(19 Astragalus,4 Zedoary turmeric,11 Atractylodes macrocephala,9 Curcuma longa,5 Clematis root,and 5 Salvia chinensis),297 candidate genes,2413 GO and 119 KEGG pathways were obtained.Conclusion:The active compounds of Qizhu Yuling Decoction in the treatment of esophageal cancer are quercetin,kaempferol,glycine and ursolic acid.The potential targets are AKT1,MAPK1,MAPK3,PIK3R1 and RELA.GO involves oxidative stress,cell cycle,apoptosis and cell death,and KEGG involves typical cancer pathways,MAPK,NF-κB and PI3K-Akt signaling pathways.This study reveals the molecular biological mechanism of Qizhu Yuling Decoction in the treatment of esophageal cancer,and speculates that the function of potential targets focuses on the interaction of multiple signaling pathways,which can antagonize the proliferation,invasion,metastasis and recurrence of esophageal cancer and improve the prognosis of patients.This study provides new evidence for subsequent new drug development,clinical application and experimental study.

Study on medication rules of Chinese herbs in the regulation of necroptosis based on network pharmacology and data mining

Objective:To analyze the basis and medication rules of Chinese herbs in the regulation of necroptosis.Methods:With the help of GeneCards,DrugBank,TTD,DisGeNET,OMIM database to collect the action targets of necroptosis,the TCMSP database to obtain the target‑related compounds and Chinese herbs,and the ADME criteria and Lipinski rule as the conditions for screening,to build the target‑compound,target‑compound‑Chinese herbs network.The information of Chinese herbal medicine's sexual taste and meridian was collected,and the drug use pattern was analyzed.The information on the property,flavor and channel tropism of Chinese herbs was collected to analyze the medication laws.Molecular docking of core targets and compounds in the network with AutoDockTools software,and PyMOL software was used to display the combinations with good docking results.Results:A total of 12 potential targets acting on necroptosis were obtained,matching to 191 candidate compounds and 366 herbal medicines.Quercetin,wogonin,triptolide,licochalcone a,ellipticine are more important and may be the main small molecule substances underlying the regulation of necroptosis.The more important Chinese herbs are Licorice,Forsythia,Salivae Miltiorrhizae,Ginkgo Leaf,Eucommia ulmoides Oliv,etc.The herbal medicines are mainly bitter and pungent,with cold and warm taste,which were attributed to the liver and lung meridians.BCL2‑beta‑sitosterol、MAPK14‑luteolin、MAPK14‑formononetin、TP53‑formononetin are better molecular docking results,which have strong docking activity.Conclusion:The study systematically analyzes the material basis of regulating necroptosis and summarizes the general rule of regulating necroptosis in Chinese medicine,which provides ideas for clinical development of agents to interfere with necroptosis.

Analysis of Strategy for Extending Patent Protection of Rucaparib

As a knowledge-intensive and promising strategic emerging industry, the biomedical industry has high entry thresholds, large R&D investment, long cycle, high risk and high return. In all technical fields, the biomedical industry has the highest dependence on intellectual property rights, and the protection of pharmaceutical intellectual property rights by domestic and foreign biomedical enterprises also runs through the whole process of drug research and development. Extending the patent protection period of drugs as well as forming and strengthening patent fortresses requires a patent network that surrounds drugs to maximize the value of intellectual property protection, which is also the focus of every pharmaceutical company with patent rights. By analyzing the patent portfolio of Clovis Oncology Company in the United States on Rucaparib and the patent portfolio of other companies or applicants on Rucaparib, we can have a clearer understanding of the strategy of extending the patent protection period of a new drug product.

A Review on the Research of Precision Medicine for Cancer Based on the Integration of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine

Objective:To summarize and expound the general situation of precision medicine for cancer according to the current international research hot spots and treatment frontiers of cancer.Methods:This article makes an inventory from five aspects of treatment methods,detection technology,new drug research and development,information data and traditional Chinese medicine,"from point to surface","from outside to inside"and"integration of Chinese and Western medicine",to explore the whole picture of tumor treatment and research.Results:With the rapid development of tumor precision medicine in recent years,the tumor treatment methods have been developed from single to multiple.The research technology has been changed from macro to micro.The therapeutic drugs have been changed from systemic chemotherapy to targeted therapy,immunotherapy and other technologies.The treatment concept has been changed from local to overall.And the integrated treatment methods of traditional Chinese and Western medicine have brought a new chapter to tumor treatment.Conclusion:Through a series of new technologies,new methods and new concepts,tumor precision medicine promotes the treatment of tumors with integrated Chinese and Western medicine into a new chapter.

ETCM v2.0:An update with comprehensive resource and rich annotations for traditional Chinese medicine

Existing traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)-related databases are still insufficient in data standardization,integrity and precision,and need to be updated urgently.Herein,an Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine version 2.0(ETCM v2.0,http://www.tcmip.cn/ETCM2/front/#/)was constructed as the latest curated database hosting 48,442 TCM formulas recorded by ancient Chinese medical books,9872 Chinese patent drugs,2079 Chinese medicinal materials and 38,298 ingredients.To facilitate the mechanistic research and new drug discovery,we improved the target identification method based on a two-dimensional ligand similarity search module,which provides the confirmed and/or potential targets of each ingredient,as well as their binding activities.Importantly,five TCM formulas/Chinese patent drugs/herbs/ingredients with the highest Jaccard similarity scores to the submitted drugs are offered in ETCM v2.0,which may be of significance to identify prescriptions/herbs/ingredients with similar clinical efficacy,to summarize the rules of prescription use,and to find alternative drugs for endangered Chinese medicinal materials.Moreover,ETCM v2.0 provides an enhanced Java Script-based network visualization tool for creating,modifying and exploring multi-scale biological networks.ETCM v2.0 may be a major data warehouse for the quality marker identification of TCMs,the TCM-derived drug discovery and repurposing,and the pharmacological mechanism investigation of TCMs against various human diseases.

Function and application of Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Calculate System

Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Calculate System(TCMICS)is a computational tool designed to facilitate the analysis of diseases,symptoms,syndromes,prescriptions,and acupoints based on databases of existing prescriptions,medical cases,or compound formulas.The software,currently updated to version 3.5,comprehensively presents the relationships between diseases,symptoms,syndromes,prescriptions,herbalmedicines,and acupoints.TCMICS integrates the functions of importing,retrieving,and analyzing diseases,syndromes,symptoms,tonguemanifestations,pulsemanifestations,herbal medicines,prescriptions,medical cases,and related information.It includes 7 functional modules:statistical analysis,prescription analysis,symptom analysis,tongue manifestation analysis,pulse manifestation analysis,acupoint analysis,and comprehensive analysis.TCMICS has been recognized by academicians,national TCM veterans,and renowned TCM clinics in Beijing,Shanghai,Guizhou,Shandong,Tianjin,and so on.It is regarded as an important tool for inheriting the academic thoughts and clinical experience of renowned TCM veterans and has been applied to the inheritance of Chinese medical expertise and analysis of TCM literature,as well as the development of TCM products.